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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



FOETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



STATE OP INDIANA, 

WITH THAT OF THE 

STATE OFFICERS AND JUDICIARY, 

BY JAMES SUTHERLAND, 

li 

rOMPIL7.P» OP (kiZETTEERS AND OTHER STATISTICAL WORKS 
FOR THE STATES OF INDIANA, MISSOURI, 
OHIO AND MICHIGAN. 



PRICE OWE DOLLAR AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 




00/ 



INDIANAPOLIS : 

INDIANAPOLLS JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1861. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 18G1, by 



JAMES SUTHERLAND, 



In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Indiana, 



JOURNAL COMPANY, 

I'UINTKRS, 

Indianai'oi.is, Ind. 



DOUGLASS & PALMKR, 

BINDERS, 

Indianapolis, Ind. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The author is constrained to believe tliat the style and 
character of this ■work embody something original in the Bio- 
graphical Department of Book Publishing. The utility of 
such a work is apparent. A volume containing condensed 
sketches of the Executive, Officers of State, Judges of the 
Supreme Court, and Members and Officers of both branches 
of the General Assembly, cannot fail to receive a cordial 
welcome at the hands of the reading public; and especially 
from those who have been, or now are, identified with the 
public affairs of this State. It will be something of a legacy 
for the descendants of the men Avho have made and adminis- 
tered the laws of this great Commonwealth, after they shall 
have passed away from this state of existence, to find recorded 
on its pages the name and public services of a father, whose 
memory is dearer to them than all else on earth. It is a book 
that will not fail to be cherished by them until the close of 
life. Aside from considerations of a private nature, this work 
will supply a public want long felt and acknowledged. Here 
the public journalist will find the facts for his columns when 



PREFACE. 

it becomes his melanclioly duty to announce the death of In- 
diana's prominent men — the data upon which to base a fitting 
and respectful eulogy on the life and services of the deceased. 
For this reason alone a work of such a character should be 
placed upon the shelves of every public library in the State. 
The author has studiously endeavored to avoid the remotest 
approach toward partiality in the compiling and editing of 
these Biographies. In preparing them for the press he has 
been assisted by Jos. A. Berry and Samuel K, Christy, 
Esqs., gentlemen of acknowledged ability. The author has 
been indefatigable in his efforts to produce a volume corres- 
ponding with its title, and one that will subserve, in some de- 
gree, both public and private interests. Without further 
remark he submits these pages to the judgment of an appre- 
ciative public. 

James Sutherland. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In preparing this work for the press, a constant endeavor has 
been observed to present it to the public in a form entirely devoid 
of exclusive favor to any gentleman whose political career is here 
recorded. The Biographies have in no instance been abridged to 
the disparagement or injustice of the subject — -as no facts of im- 
portance coming within the range of the writer's knowledge, have 
been omitted. The difference in their length is to be attributed 
to the nature of the pursuits, professions or avocations of the in- 
dividuals whose lives it is designed to sketch within the limits of 
this volume. Some gentlemen, from the prominent part they 
have acted before the public, have made the different events in 
their lives familiar to the people of the State. In such instances 
no difficulty was encountered in placing them prominently upon 
these pages. Still great pains have been taken to do the most 
exact justice to those whose public careers commenced at a later 
date, and have been less eventful. The truth, in all cases, has 
been rigidly adhered to, for had the writer not confined himself to 
facts, this work might very readily have assumed the direction of 
romance, and fiction might have lengthened its ^pages ad injinitum. 
Everything of this nature has been avoided with studious care ; 
and it is hoped that the public as well as the parties more par- 
ticularly interested, will not be disposed to condemn hastily, but 
give due weight to the truth that this is not a work of fiction, but 
of facts, and that consequently the length of these Biographies 
varies in proportion as the writer is enabled to glean facts in the 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

lives of the Members and Officers of the General Assembly. The 
most gratefal thanks are here tendered, without reserve, to the 
Members of both branches of the Indiana Legislature for the ac- 
tion had in the Senate on the 14th, and in the House on the 15th 
of January, in the adoption of resolutions, extending to the per- 
sons engaged in the production of this work, free access to both 
Houses during session hours, in order that they might with greater 
facility collect the statistics used in its compilation, as well as for 
the uniform gentlemanly and courteous bearing of the members 
whenever approached in regard to that subject. And gratitude 
is due them in no less degree on account of the patronage given 
with liberal hands in subscriptions to the work. Before closing 
these introductory remarks, it may not be deemed improper to 
venture a word in regard to the character of this General Assem- 
bly, the individual members of which are here placed on record. 
The Forty-first General Assembly of Indiana, then, in all the ele- 
ments of virtue, talent and patriotism essential in the wise and 
prudent statesman, has never been excelled by any deliberative 
body that has assembled in the State since or prior to its admis- 
sion into the Union. The legislation has been such as was de- 
manded by the interests of the Commonwealth — the expunging 
from the statute books of unnecessary laws, the enactment of oth- 
ers calculated to subserve the public weal, and amending those 
that had operated unequally and unjustly upon the people of the 
State. This being the case, each and every Member of this Leg- 
islature can return home, fully expecting to receive the welcome 
due to Kood and faithful servants. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 



OLIVER P. MORTON. 



Mr. Morton is the first native of this State upon wliom its 
citizens have conferred gubernatorial honors. He was born in 
Wayne county, August 4th, 1823, and is novr 37 years of age. — 
He attended the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, but did not 
remain a sufficient length of time to graduate; still he acquired, 
while there, the reputation of being the best debater in the Uni- 
versity. In 1845, he entered the law office of the Hon. John S. 
Newman, at Centerville, Ind., an able lawyer, and now President 
of the Indiana Central Railroad Company. Mr. Morton was ad- 
mitted to the Bar in the fall of 1846, and in a short time received 
a large, lucrative practice, and at once took rank with the first 
lawyers of his circuit. He practiced assiduously at his profession 
until February, 1852, when he was elected Circuit Judge, and 
served upon the Bench about one year, during which time he 
made for himself a reputation that will ever stand as a bright 
monument to his memory. In 1864, upon the passage of the Ne- 
braska bill, he took ground against that measure, and renounced 
his connection with the Democratic organization. On the 1st of 
May, 1856, and without any solicitation upon his part, he was nom- 
inated by acclamation as the Republican candidate for Governor 
of Indiana. lie at once entered upon the canvass, and spoke in 
most of the counties of the State. He did more to awaken in the 
minds of the people a love for the principles of his party than any 
other man. Throughout that entire canvass, wherever the peo- 
ple assembled, there his powerful and persuasive arguments were 
listened to and appreciated. Contrary to the desires of his friends 
and party, whose hopes and expectations had been raised to the 
highest pitch by the brilliant and energetic canvass he had just 
closed, he was defeated by a small majority. In 18G0, his friends 
thinking that the prospects of his party were more flattering, 
again presented his name to the Republicans of Indiana, as a can- 
didate for the position for which he had been defeated four 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



years previous, but for reasons which seemed tangible at that 
time, but have since proved groundless, he declined, and Col. H. 
S. Lane was nominated for Grovernor, and it was at once urged 
that Mr. Morton should allow his name to be used as a candidate 
for Lieutenant Governor. He was inaugurated as Lieutenant 
Governor on the 14th day of January, 1861, and two days 
afterwards was called upon to take the oath of office as Gov- 
ernor, in consequence of Col. Lane's elevation to a seat in the 
United States Senate ; and he aocordingly entered upon the dis- 
charge of the duties of that high and honorable position, on the 
16th of January, 1861. The following, which the writer deems 
proper to insert here, is an extract from a leading Indiana paper, 
whose editor has been acquaintedwith Mr. Morton from boyhood: 

"Indeed, no man in Indiana of Judge Morton's age is his su- 
perior in all those qualities that make up genuine manhood. By 
the force of his own powers, he has attained the enviable position 
where he now stands. In the very prime of manhood, he pos- 
sesses the intellectual, moral and physical powers necessary to 
dischai'ge the onerous duty of Governor of Indiana. We know 
whereof we speak when we write of 0. P. Morton. We knew him 
in his bo}'hood, and know him in our manhood. We admire him 
because we know him, and know him well." 

As a lawyer. Gov. Morton has attained a position well worthy 
of his talent, and has long been regarded as an ornament to that 
profession. He is a clear, logical, cogent reasoner, having few 
superiors in any branch of his profession. The excellence of his 
speeches is acknowledged all over the country, and during the 
several political campaigns in which he has engaged, they were 
published in Eastern as well as Western papers, to an extent 
highly gratifying to his friends. This was particularly the case 
in 1860. Did the limits of this work permit, the writer would be 
pleased to make some extracts from his speeches, as they are ad- 
mitted by all parties to rank among the happiest efforts of politi- 
cal oratory on record in this State. 



SIMEON K, WOLFE. 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF HARRISON AND WASHINGTON. 

The subject of this sketch is the State Senator from the counties 
of Harrison and Washington. He was born in Floyd county, 
Indiana, on the 14th of February, 1824. He is the son of George 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



I. Wolfe, who represented Floyd county in the lower branch of 
the Indiana Legislature, in the two sessions of 1843-4, and 1844- 
5, and for many years has been one of the prominent leading men 
of that county. A common school education is all that he was 
able to give his son ; the latter, however, by industry and perse- 
verance in literary matters, is a well read, if not a classical schol- 
ar. From his early boyhood lie had a passion for the acquisition 
of useful knowledge. Beginning life without means, and having 
in 1843, married the daughter of John Bence,a substantial farmer 
of Harrison county, Mr. Wolfe located at Corydon, the county 
seat, in the early part of 1844, and for about five years was en- 
gaged in the boot and shoe, and mercantile pursuits, and in the 
meantime was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace, which 
he held about four years, and then resigned the same. In Feb- 
ruary, 1849, through the advice of friends, and to gratify his own 
inclinations, he began to read law in the office of Judge Wm. A. 
Porter, a member of the Corydon bar, and one of the leading law- 
yers of the State. In November following, Mr. Wolfe entered 
the law school of the University of Indiana, at Bloomington,then 
under the joint Professorship of Judges David 3IcDonald and 
Wm. T. Otto. Entering both the junior and senior classes of 
that Institution at the same time, his labors were very severe, but 
were crowned with success; for, contrary to the rules of the insti- 
tution, he graduated at the close of his first session, in March, 
1850, and had conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Law. 
In the active practice of that profession he is still successfully 
engaged. Politically, Mr. Wolfe commenced life as a Whig, 
but always showed that his devotion to country was superior 
to that of party, which was strikingly exemplified in his course 
in regard to the 3Iexican War, which, from its inception to its 
close, received his warm and cordial support, notwithstanding 
a large portion of his party associates opposed his views, and 
some of them with much bitterness. In 1851, when party feeling 
had to a considerable extent subsided, he became a candidate for 
the office of State Senator. In that race he was opposed (and 
defeated by seventeen votes,) by the eccentric Kev. William M. 
Salfer. This defeat was attributable, in a great extent, to the 
fact that many of the Whigs failed to vote for him on account of 
his course on the Mexican war question, and because, they said, 



10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

he had "Democratic proclivities" which afterwards proved true ; 
for in 1852, he openly espoused the cause of the national Democ- 
racy, and voted for Franklin Pierce. When Know Nothingism 
arose, in 1854, Mr. Wolfe was one of the earliest to oppose its 
spread, which he did on the stump, with much zeal, incurring the 
displeasure of the members of that party to an extent not yet 
wholly eradicated. In 1856, Mr. Wolfe was appointed by the 
Democratic State Convention as the candidate for Presidential 
Elector for the Second Congressional District, and, pending the 
election, he canvassed the entire District in company with David 
T. Laird; the Fillmore elector. In February, 1857, he com- 
menced the publication, at Corydon, of a paper, which at first 
was called the '■^Harrison Democrat,'''' but which was subsequently 
changed to its present name — the " Corydon Weeldy Democrat,''' 
which is still under his control as proprietor and editor, and is ia^ 
a flourishing condition. When the Lecompton controversy arose, 
in 1857-8, Mr. Wolfe opposed with zeal the extreme views en- 
tertained by both factions, believing that the matters involved 
were not of sufficient importance, and too abstract and temporary 
in their character to hazard the integrity and unity of the Demo- 
cratic party, and of the Union, in a contest over them; yet he 
always contended that Mr. Douglas, in the main, was abstractly 
right. In the Congressional contest of 1858, his friends of his 
own county presented his name to the Democratic Congressional 
Convention, as a candidate for Congress, but the "English Com- 
promise" then being the absorbing question, its author received 
the nomination, as it was urged at that time, as an indorsement 
of that measure. 

At the Democratic State Convention which was held at India- 
napolis on the 11th of January, 1860, Mr. Wolfe was selected as 
one of the Delegates from the Second Congressional District, to 
the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, which he at- 
tended, as he did also, the adjourned meeting of the same body, 
at Baltimore. At the latter, though a warm friend of Judge 
Douglas, but foreseeing, as he thought, the deplorable conse- 
quence to the party and the country which a disruption of the 
party would entail, he urged a scheme, in conjunction with several 
other Delegates, to avert the impending calamity by requesting 
the Illinois Delegation to withdraw the name of Mr. Douglas. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 11 

He conceived this the only feasible plan, as the instructions of 
the Indiana Delegation were imperative as long as the name of 
Mr. Douglas was before the Convention. If that scheme had 
succeeded, it is thought by many that a disruption of the party, 
and the present troublous condition of the country might have 
been averted. At least it is but just to say that it evinced, in 
those engaged in it, that a love of country was paramount to any 
individual attachment, which is a virtue not universal in these 
times. While absent at Baltimore, Mr. Wolfe received the unan- 
imous nomination of the Democratic party of Harrison and 
Washington counties, as a candidate for the office of State Sena- 
tor. He was opposed by Henry Jordan, who had previously been 
the Democratic Representative from Harrison county, and being 
a candidate for re-nomination was defeated by the County Con- 
vention. The Republicans, sympathizing in his defeat, took him 
up and ran him as an independent candidate; he to the mortifi- 
cation of many of his former friends consenting to occupy that 
position. In that contest Mr. Wolfe was triumphant, being 
elected by over five hundred majority, and is now (January ISGl) 
an occupant of a seat in the Senate. Though a young member, 
he has already taken a prominent and leading position in the de- 
liberations and discussions of that body. At the present session 
he is a member of the following important standing committees : 
the Judiciary ; Federal Relations ; Organization of Courts ; the 
State Prison, and Printing. In the Senate, on the 17th of Jan- 
uary, upon a resolution introduced by the chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Federal Relations, and the minority report from the 
same committee, in which the position of Indiana, in the present 
crisis, was the question involved, Mr. Wolfe made an elaborate 
speech in which he evinced a warm devotion to the Union, and 
argued that it could be maintained alone by compromises and 
concessions on the part of the ultraists of both extremes. The. 
speech was pronounced by the Indiana Journal, a Republican 
paper, as "able, reasonable and dignified and free from the 
'stumpish' character of others." Post Office address — Corydon, 
Harrison county, Ind. 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ALBERT LANGE, 

AUDITOR or STATE. 

Mr. Lange, the present efficient Auditor of State is a Prussian 
by birth, and was born December 16, 1801. In politics he is a 
conservative Republican. When he was quite young his parents 
were removed by death, leaving him to pursue his fortunes unas- 
sisted. However, he struggled heroically with all the adverse 
circumstances that beset his path, and succeeded in procuring 
such an education as six years diligent study at college aflPorded. 
After this he studied law at the Universities of Halle and Breslan, 
with success. In his native eoun try he was prosecuted for con spiracy 
having for its object the overthrow of all the governments in Ger- 
many, and the establishment in lieu of them one government, in 
which the rights and liberties of the people were to be guaranteed; 
was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment at the Fortress of 
Glogau in Silesia, and was a prisoner six years, inclusive of the 
time consumed by the trial; and was pardoned on the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1830. The same year he emigrated to the United States, 
and upon his arrival here engaged in trading and farming. In 
1841 he was elected Justice of the Peace in Terre Haute, and re- 
elected to the same office in 1846. In 1849 was appointed by 
General Taylor, Consul at Amsterdam. This honorable posi- 
tion he accepted, but resigned some time during the year 1850) 
and returned to his adopted home, Terre Haute ; and soon after 
was elected Auditor of Vigo county, which office he held two con- 
secutive terms, and was elected Auditor of State in 1860. Mr. 
Lange has large experience in political affairs, not so much from 
having held office as from study and investigation. He is a de- 
voted friend of Republican institutions, and the fact that he placed 
his life in jeopardy in his native Prussia, for the cause of free- 
dom, proves that the honors conferred upon him by his party, 
are merited. He is an excellent State officer, and his party, nor 
the people of the State generally, never will regret having con- 
ferred upon him so distinguished a position. He is affable, cour- 
teous and unassuming in his manners, and his conversation is 
marked by that agreeable frankness, and earnestness common to 
men who have tasted sorrow, and struggled with and overcome 
many difficulties. Post office address — Terre Haute, Vigo county, 
Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKECTHES. 13 



TIMOTHY R, DICKINSON. 

SBNATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP NOBLE, DEKALB AND STEUBEN. 

Mr. Dickinson was born in Randolph, Portage county, Ohio, 
March 18, 1816. Mr. D., although he has strayed with advantage 
in the "flowery paths of learning," graduated in a wood-colored 
school-house. He is one of those sterling men who can perform 
great things when great circumstances require it, without the aid 
of Greek or Latin. He is an attorny at law, occupying a promi- 
nent place among the first members of that profession in the 
State. He was admitted by the Supreme Court of Ohio, August 
31, 184-1, at Ravenna, in that State. Mr. D. is not a " New Con- 
stitution lawyer," and the writer experiences a thrill of pride per- 
vading his system as he records the fact that there is not a law- 
yer in the present General Assembly who has clambered up into 
the profession by that dubious route. He was married January 
1st, 1838, to Miss Mary Youngman, and moved from the place of 
his nativity to Auburn, Ind., in October, 1847. In 18G0 he was 
elected by the Republican party to the Senate from the counties 
of DeKalb, Noble and Steuben, his majority being 1,000 votes 
over his popular competitor. Robert Patterson, Esq., of Steu- 
ben, was his opponent. He has never advocated any political 
principles except those of Republicanism, the doctrines of which 
party — although there was no organization at that time — he em- 
braced twenty years ago. The only deviation from that creed he 
made in voting for Mr. Pierce, and for which infraction of his 
original political faith he was rewarded by having bestowed upon 
him the lucrative and uiunificent appointment of Postmaster at 
Auburn, Indiana, in 1853 ; which office he filled two years and a 
half, and was removed for not being sufficiently Administrative 
in his proclivities. Mr. D., in conversation with a friend, admit- 
ted that he " regretted the voting for Franklin Pierce more than 
any other act of his life," but as this is a matter concerning Mr. 
Pierce, Mr. Dickinson, and the two great political parties of the 
country, and not the writer, he will say no more about it. Post- 
office address — Auburn, DeKalb county, Ind. 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

SMITH JONES, 

SENATOR FROM BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY. 

Mr. Jones was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, Septem- 
ber 13th, 1813, and emigrated to Bartholomew county, Indiana, 
with his father, Benjamin Jones, (who is still living, aged 84 
years,) and settled on the farm where he now resides. In Octo- 
ber, 1839, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Spencer. He has 
never been favored with a place in any institution of learning, 
except a common school; but, with untiring industry, he devoted 
all his leisure time to the attainment of knowledge, in which he 
was singularly successful. Being a close observer, and gifted with 
large perceptive fticulties, his home study resulted in the attain- 
ment of an education little inferior to a collegiate course. He is 
a Democrat of the old Jackson school, and in the spirited and 
sharply contested canvass which resulted in his election to the 
Indiana Senate, ran as an anti-Lecompton Democrat; he being 
an ardent admirer of Stephen A. Douglas and opposed to the 
Buchanan Administration. He was a member of the Indiana 
Constitutional Convention in 1850. In that body he was noted 
for his industry in dispatching the labors of the Convention, and 
his zeal for the welfare of the State. In the contest for a seat in 
the Convention there were four delegates to elect. One of Mr. 
Jones' opponents was a Democrat, and a gentleman of promi- 
nence, and who was supported by the Whigs, but was defeated. 
The colleague of Mr. Jones was Major Tannehill, a Democrat. At 
the adjournment of the Convention he returned to his farm, de- 
voting his entire attention to agriculture, and with much success. 
Passing over a period of nine years, Mr. Jones became a candi- 
date for a seat in the Senate, which step was induced by the 
course of those who indorsed the Lecompton policy, and attemp- 
ted to make that question a test of Democracy. For a seat in 
the Senate he was opposed by Thomas Essex, an Administration 
Democrat, over whom he was elected by 183 majority. This con- 
test was the most bitter and exciting ever witnessed in Bartholo- 
mew county. Mr. Jones has never professed any political creed 
except that of the Democratic party — devoted to principles, and 
not to men. He is a brother of Aquilla Jones, of Indianapolis, 
late Treasurer of State. Post office address — Jonesville, Bar- 
tholomew county, Ind. 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 15 

ASAHEL STONE, 

SENATOR FROM RANDOLPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Stone was born in "Washington county, Ohio, June 29th, 
1817. Like many other members of the Republican party, he 
was originally an old line Whig, and has always taken rather a 
lively interest in public affairs — in some measure a partisan. — 
Aside from the part he has taken in political matters he has been 
a zealous champion in the cause of temperance, having officiated 
in the honorable capacity of Gr. W. C. T., of the Grand Lodge of 
Good Templars of the State of Indiana for two terms, and is now 
a member of the Grand Division of Sons of Temperance. More- 
over, he has not tasted ardent spirits, in any form, for twenty 
years. Truly this is a commendable case of extraordinary absti- 
nence, and one that has but few parallels in this age of debauch- 
ery. In 1847 he was elected a member of the Indiana House of 
Representatives. In that canvass he ran against Mr. Daniel B. 
Miller, and in the race of 1860 he was elected over William P. 
Debolt by 830 majority. His trade is that of a carpenter, which 
occupation he relinquished and became a tiller of the soil. He 
was married in Cincinnati, September 24th, 1837, to Miss Lydia 
B. Preston, and settled in Randolph county, Indiana, in 1839. 
Mr. Stone's education, although acquired by his own efforts, would 
not suffer by a comparison with that of some men who have " burnt 
the midnight oil" in the great institutions of learning of the 
country. An education thus acquired is always more practical, 
if it is not as thorough as a collegiate course. Post office ad- 
dress — Winchester, Randolph county, Ind. 



MAGNUS T. CARNAHAN, 

senator prom the counties op POSEY AND VANDERBURG. 

Mr. Carnahan was born in Christian county, Kentucky, Aug- 
ust 4th, 1803. Mr. C. is a Democrat of the unswerving kind, 
and has served his constituency long and well in both branches 
of the Legislature. The writer has no information to be guided 
by in stating the intensity of his political labors However, 
he has not sought the place as much as the office has sought 
him. He is deservedly popular at home among his constituency) 



16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and he is as free from the least tincture of Abolitionism as any 
man in the State, believing and teaching that ours is emphatically 
a government instituted and maintained for the benefit of white 
men. He was elected in 184:6 from Posey county as a member of 
the Lower House — opposed by Alvin P. Hovey ; second time in 
184:9 — opposed by James C. Endicott; third time in 1854 — op- 
posed by George S. Green ; fourth time in 1856 — opposed by 
Milton Black ; fifth time elected as a Senator from Posey and 
Vanderburg in 1858, serving in the regular and extra sessions of 
that year and holding over. This makes the seven sessions. In 
the canvass of 1858 his competitor was Virgil Soper. The father 
of our Senator, John Carnahan, was born in Pennsylvania. He 
entered the army of the Revolution in which he served seven years, 
and attained to the rank of Colonel. After peace was declared 
he moved into Warren county, Ky., and shortly after married 
Phebe Johnson. In 1800 he moved to Christian county, Ky., " 
where Mr. Carnahan, jr., was born. At the age of four years he 
was deprived of both parents by death, and left at that early age 
to battle for himself; and nobly did he breast the adverse circum- 
stances which beset his path, and won for himself a place among 
the first men of the State. His first vote was cast for Andrew 
Jackson, for whom he voted three times, and since then for all the 
nominees of the Democratic party. Post ofiice address — New 
Harmony, Posey county, Indiana. 



JJAMES D. WILLIAMS, 

SENATOR PROM THE COUNTIES OF KNOX AND DAVIESS. 

Mr. Williams was born in Pickway county, Ohio, January 
16, 1808, and emigrated to Knox county, Ind., with his parents, 
in 1818, where he has lived ever since. Mr. Williams is a 
Democrat, and has served seven terms in the General Assembly — 
three in the Senate and four in the House — having now been in 
active political life seventeen years. As a consistent, faithful 
and efficient legislator, few men can compare records with him. 
He first became a candidate for the House of Eepresentatives in 
1843, and was elected by a majority of 112 votes over Abner T. 
Ellis, an attorney, the county usually giving a Whig majority 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKECTHES. 17 

of from 300 to 350. In 1845 he ran against Robert jS. Cavnan' 
a lawyer, and was defeated by a majority of 90 votes. In 1847, 
he was elected over George D. May, a merchant of Vincennes, 
by 93 majority. In 1848, he was a candidate for the Senate, 
against Abner T. Ellis, and defeated by a majority of 250 votes. 
In 1851, he was a candidate for Representative, and was opposed 
by Dr. John G. Freeland, Hon. John Ewing, ex-member of 
Congress, and John B. Dunning, and elected by a majority of 
35 votes, over Dr. Freeland. In 1856 he was again a candi. 
date for the Lower House, and was elected over Judge Clark 
Willis, by a majority of 488 votes. In 1858 he was a candidate 
for the Senate, and elected without opposition. The two sessions 
of 1858-9, and the present one, make the three terms in the Sen- 
ate. Mr. Williams is not a graduate, but possesses a good English 
education. By occupation he is a farmer and miller. He was 
married in February, 1831, to Miss Nancy Huffman, of Knox 
county. His father's name was George Williams. Post office 
address. Pond Creek Mills, Knox county, Ind. 



JAMES R. SLACK, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF HUNTINGTON AND WHITLEY. 

Mr. Slack was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Septem- 
ber 28th, 1818, and made Indiana his home in 1837. Since 
1840, has resided at Huntington, in which year he was 
admitted to practice law. As a lawyer, Mr. Slack is learned 
and successful, having but few equals in the State; and 
there is no member of the bar, of equal distinction, less vain 
of his power and acquirements. In his deportment towards 
others he is courteous, and disposed to forgive rather than cen- 
sure. He has served five terms in the Indiana Senate, and du- 
ring that time has acquired a position in the front ranks of its 
members. Practical in all his views on State policy, his labors 
in that body have redounded to the interests of Indiana on many 
occasions. He is a working member, and the length of time he 
has worn his Senatorial honors is a sufficient guarantee that his 
record is indorsed by his constituency. In debate he is a favo- 
rite with all who hear him, whether members or outsiders, being 
2 



BIOGRAPHICAL SHETCHES. 



gifted with a graceful manner, rich, full-toned and musical 
voice, and makes his points with a force and clearness that is irre- 
sistible. In 1854, he was a candidate for Congress, but was de- 
feated. In 23olitics Mr. S. is a Democrat. 



RICHARD PATTIN De HART. 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP CASS, HOWARD AND PULASKI. 

Mr. De Hart was born in Warren county, Ohio. January 1, 
1836. He is a Republican in politics, but has devoted quite a 
small portion of his time and energy to the study of that occult 
science, being a thorough and working lawyer. Mr. De Hart 
first took an active part in politics in 1858. The canvas of 18G0, 
in his district, was an exciting one. Dr. B. F. Henderson, of 
Howard county, was his opposing candidate, over whom he was 
elected by 620 majority, running ahead of the ticket in Cass and 
Pulaski — the Republican majority in the same District, foar years 
previous, being but 60. Mr. D. came to Indiana in 1855, and 
followed the profession of a teacher, in the counties of Carroll 
and Cass for one year, without missing a day. This incessant 
labor was actually necessary to raise the means to enable him to 
commence his professional reading, which he did in June, 1857, 
in the office of the Hon. H. P. Biddle, of this State, reading two 
years, at the end of which time he commenced the practice. In 
1858, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the 11th Judicial 
Circuit of Indiana. In attending to the duties of this position, 
it became his frequent duty to prosecute some of the most hard- 
ened villains, for the most revolting crimes, many of them being- 
murder cases. During his entire career as a prosecutor, not one 
of his indictments was quashed; and no murderer in his district, 
ever escaped the punishment due his crime, however learned and 
talented his defense, when Mr. De Hart prosecuted the pleps of 
the State. As a prosecutor, he is zealous, untiring, and incor- 
ruptible, and although he has been brought in conflict with the 
most brilliant legal talent in the State, has always maintained his 
reputation and standing in the front rank of his profession. It 
is not as a prosecutor only, that he has attained an enviable pro- 
ficiency; being equally efficient in the other branches of the law. 
In 1860, he resigned his office. This is his first term in the 
Senate. Post office address — Logansport, Ind. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 19 

JAMES L. WORDEN, 

JUDGE OF SUPREME COURT OP INDIANA. 

Mr. WoRDEN -was born in Berkshire county, MassacliusettPj 
May lOtli, 1819. When quite young he left his native State, and 
settled in Ohio. He selected the law for his profession, and pur- 
sued his studies at Cincinnati. In 1840 he was admitted to prac- 
tice by the Supreme Court of that fitate, at Lancaster, commenc- 
ing business for himself at Tiffin. In 1844 he came to Whitley 
county, Indiana, and after making his home in that county for a 
short time, removed to Noble county, and from there to Allen 
county, where he now resides. After serving several terms as 
Prosecuting Attorney, in 1855 he was appointed Judge of the 
10th Judicial Circuit, by Governor Joseph A. Wright, and before 
the expiration of that year was elected to the same position with- 
out opposition. In 1857 he was nominated as the Democratic 
candidate for Congress, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
death of the Hon. Samuel Brenton. In that political contest he 
was opposed by Hon. Charles Case, who was elected by near 900 
majority. Mr. W. conducted the canvass with marked ability ; 
but there are times when the most distinguished talent cannot 
prevail in the field of politics, and so it was in that canvass. He 
continued to discharge the duties of Circuit Judge until January, 
1858, when he was appointed by Governor Willard to a seat on 
the Bench of the Supreme Court of the State, to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of Judge Stuart, and in the same 
year was elected to the same office. In all the positions in 
which Mr. W. has served the people of Indiana, he has acquited 
himself with honor and credit. His legal learning is profound 
and varied, eminently qualifying him for the high place he now 
occupies, and rendering him a fit successor to the distinguished 
gentleman whose seat he filled first by appointment and after- 
wards by election. Post office address — Fort Wayne, Ind. 



EX-GOVER]SrOR H. S. LANE, 

OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 

Mr. Lane is the son of Col. James H. Lane, who emigrated to 
Kentucky from Loudon county, Virginia in 1779. Mr. Lane 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

was born in Montgomery couaty, Kentucky, on the 24th of Feb- 
ruary, 1811, commenced the study of law in 1832 under the tui- 
tion of Major James Sudduth; of Bath county, Kentucky, and af- 
ter reading for two years, was licensed to practice in the superior 
and inferior courts of Kentucky; in 1834 he removed to his present 
residence, at Crawfordsville, Indiana, and commenced the practice 
of law in partnership with Hgn. Isaac Naylor, and was soon en- 
gaged in a very lucrative and extensive practice. In 1837, he 
was elected to the Legislature of his adopted State, and served for 
one term, and at the end of the session resumed his professional 
pursuits. In 1840 he engaged very actively in the canvass in 
favor of General Harrison, and was nominated for elector, but re- 
signed that place to become a candidate for Congress from the 
7th Congressional District, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the re- 
signation of Gen. T. A. Howard. He was opposed by Hon. E. 
A. Hannegan, and was elected by over fifteen hundred majority, 
and in 1841, he was again a candidate for Congress, and was op- 
posed by Major John Bryce, his majority being over six thousand. 
At the expiration of his second term he again entered upon the 
practice of his profession. In 1844 he was made elector for the 
State at large and canvassed the greater part of the State in favor of 
Mr. Clay, to whose political fortunes he was a faithful and devoted 
adherent. In May, '46, he raised one of the first volunteer compa- 
nies for the Mexican war, and was unanimously elected Captain, 
and when the regiment was organized, at New Albany, he was 
elected Major, and when in 3Iexico he was elected Lieutenant 
Colonel on the resignation of Lt. Col. C. C. Nave. He served one 
year in Mexico, and returned home to his professional employ- 
ments. Col. L. C. Wilson was his law partner for seventeen years. 
In 1849 he became a candidate for Congress in opposition to 
Hon. J. E. McDonald, late Attorney General, and was defeated 
after a very warm canvass by about three hundred in a Democrat- 
ic district. He canvassed a large portion of the State in favor of 
General Taylor in 1848. In 1853 he abandoned the practice of 
the law and engaged in banking in company with his father-in- 
law. Major Elston, in which business he continued until his 
late election to the office of Governor. In 1858 he was elected to 
the United States Senate, but did not obtain his seat in that body. 
On the 22d of February, 1860, he was nominated for Governor by 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 21 



acclamation, and was elected over Hon. T. A. Hendricks by a 
majority of nearly ten thousand. On the 14th of January, 1861, 
he was inaugurated Governor of the State of Indiana, and on the 
next day was nominated for United States Senator in a Republi- 
can caucus bj acclamation, arid on the 16th of the same month he 
was elected Senator by a majority of thirty-one votes over Hon. 
Joseph A. Wright. He has never had any opposition in any cau- 
cus or convention before which he was a candidate. He was. a 
consistent Whig as long as the party existed, and since that time 
he has been attached to the Republican party, having attended 
the first meeting of that party, in the State, and having presided 
over the convention that nominated J. C. Fremont in 1856. 



WILLIAM A. PEELLE, 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 



Mr. Peelle was born in Richmond county, North Carolina, 
September 18th, 1819. In 1820 he removed, with his parents, to 
Indiana. A common school education was bestowed on him in 
his youth. Not being content with so little advancement in the 
paths of learning, he determined, in his maturer years, to ascend 
a little further, the Hill of Science. In furtherance of this res- 
olution, he became a diligent home student, and ceased not in his 
labors until he succeeded in making himself what we now see him, 
the polished gentleman and successful statesman. Mild and un- 
obtrusive in his deportment, and devoid of that blustering im- 
portance which marks the conduct of many successful politicians, 
he has secured the friendship of scores of the best men in the 
State, and the confidence and admiration of his party generally. 
He is an efficient officer, and discharges the duties of his position 
with credit to himself and honor to the State. Mr. P. taught 
school from his 15th to his 26th year. During his leisure 
moments while engaged in teaching, he read law, and in 1845, 
was licensed to practice. In 1848 was elected Prosecuting At- 
torney. In 1854 was elected Common Pleas Judge for the coun- 
ties of Randolph and Jay, and served two years. In 1858 was 
nominated by the Republican State Convention for Secretary of 
State, and was beaten by Col. Daniel McClure. In 1860 was 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 



again nominated for the same office, and elected, and entered upon 
the discharge of the duties of his office at Indianapolis, where he 
now resides, on the 17th of January, 1861. He was an influen- 
tial and honored member of the Whig party during its existence, 
and a great admirer of Henry Clay, and still thinks he was the 
greatest American statesman we ever had. Recently, in speaking 
of his favorite statesman, he expressed himself thus : "Would to 
God his counsels- had been followed." M. P. is in favor of the 
Union, the Constitution, and the laws. 



ABRAHAM TEEGARDEIQ", 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF LAPORTE AND STARKE. 

Mr. Teegarden was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, one 
mile west of Spruce Hollow, September 22d, 1814. His father, 
William Teegarden, was a native of Pennsylvania, and settled in 
Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1804, which State Avas at that time 
considered the "wilds of the far West." At that time his family 
consisted of a wife and two children. Civilization had made such 
slow progress, that the comforts of life were not thought of with- 
out suggesting the idea of a journey to procure them; and Mr. 
Teegarden, sen., was obliged to transport salt and provisions for 
his family, across the mountains on horseback. He was a man of 
generous heart and kind disposition, and a friend of the red men 
cf the forest. Their camp-fires often blazed near the door of his 
cabin. In this wilderness he cleared a large farm, raised a fami- 
ly of twelve children, lived to see them all married and advanta- 
geously settled in life; and then, at the ripe age of 84 years, 
peacefully passed to another state of existence. His son, Abra- 
ham Teegarden, in 1822 commenced his educational course at a 
country school house, but his attendance there was soon inter- 
rupted, and he was summoned to make his appearance in the 
clearing to assist in preparing it for the plow, an exchange of 
places he did not much regret. Three months in winter were spent in 
the school house, and the balance of the year on the farm until his 
14th year, when symptoms of pulmonary disease were discovered 
to be preying upon his constitution. He then was released from 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 23 

tlie severer labor of the farm, and occupied himself in tending 
market and taking care of stock. At the age of sixteen years, 
with improved health, he again resumed his former labor,?, chop- 
ping wood, splitting rails, &c. Soon after this he commenced a 
course of studies in Worthington College, and subsequently stu- 
died medicine in the office of his brother Eli, at Mansfield, Ohio, 
where he remained until 1837, when he packed up a small stock 
of medicines, placed his clothes in a trunk, and with fifty dollars 
in his pocket, started in search of a location in the West. He 
opened an office in the east end of what was then called the vil- 
lage of Laporte, with his drugs displayed to the best advantage 
on the shelves, his sign swinging in the air, and his money near- 
ly all gone. This being the state of his aff"airs, he naturally won- 
dered whether any person in the neighborhood was sick, and if 
not, how soon they would be. By the close of 1838 he had so 
prospered in his profession, that he had a largely increased stock 
of medicines, a good pony, an extensive and paying practice, and 
was clear of debt. In 1840 he removed his drugs to a new office 
that he had built in the center of the village, and at that time 
had fine horses and everything needful to the successful practice 
of his profession. In 1841 he attended the Eclectic Medical Col- 
lege at Cincinnati, and improved his medical education in all its 
branches, but more particularly in surgery and anatomy. In 1849 
he was a Whig candidate for the Legislature from the district 
comprised in the counties of Laporte, Porter and Lake, and was 
elected by 200 majority over the Democratic candidate, Major 
McCoy., who was an officer in the Mexican war. He served in 
the Senate in 1850, '51, '52, after which he again engaged in the 
practice of medicine until 1858, when his health failed him, and 
he was obliged to abandon his practice. From 1858 until 1860 
he filled various offices in the township in which he lived; and in 
the latter year, after much solicitation, consented to receive the 
Republican nomination for State Senator from the counties of 
Laporte and Starke, and was elected over Henry Wiggins, Esq., 
Democratic candidate, by 927 majority; and now he may be seen 
any day in the Senate chamber, and would be quickly noticed by 
a stranger, as he is six feet four inches in height, and as straight 
as a youth of ten years. In 1857 he visited Kansas, and while 
there took part in the active sports of the Territory, breaking mules, 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

capturing buffaloes, &c., In 1840 he married a daughter of Sam- 
uel Treat, Esq., who was formerly from Otsego county, N. York. 
Mr. T. is not fond of political life — it is not his choice; and he 
thinks politicians are not safe men to hold the reins of govern- 
ment. He has displayed no ordinary amount of energy and in- 
dustry in all the phases of public and private life through which 
he has passed; and now he lives in the midst of a beautiful pine 
and chestnut grove, in the city of Laporte, planted many years 
ago by his own hands, blessed with the smiles of a good wife and 
two beautiful daughters, and enjoying a merited friendship and 
popularity among the constituency he has served so well and so 
faithfully. 



JOHN P. MILLER. 

SENATOR FROM ST. JOSEPH AND MARSHAL COUNTIES. 

Mr. Miller was born in Union county, Ind., November 21st, 
1831. In 1832, his father, William Miller, (a member of the 
Legislature for three successive terms) emigrated to St. Joseph 
county, and settled on what is known as Portage Prairie, while 
the country was almost an unbroken wild, the white population 
being very sparse. His neighbors at that time were the native 
red men — the Pottowottamies. Consequently, Mr. Miller, jr., had 
for his companions, the children of the untutored red man. His 
father engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he was assisted 
by his son, who devoted the summers to the farm, and the winters 
to attendance at the common schools of that vicinity, until his 
14th year, when he left home to attend the Academy at South 
Bend, where he continued during winter, for some years — return- 
ing to the farm at the close of each term. In the year '48 he 
commenced a course of studies at Hathaway's 3Iathematical and 
Classical Institute at Chicago, where, with the studious habits he 
had cultivated in his boyhood, he soon obtained a thorough math- 
ematical education, a good knowledge of Latin, Chemistry, and 
Philosophy. In the winter of 1849, Mr. Miller commen- 
ced the study of law, with Judge Elisha Egbert of South 
Bend. He remained in this office about seven months, when he 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 25 

went to Balston Spa, Saratoga county, New York, and entered the 
State and National Law Seliool at that place; and in August 1852, 
he graduated, taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws. At this 
time Mr. Miller was not 21 years of age, but he had attained 
a thorough legal knowledge, as the degree conferred upon him 
will testify. He then settled in South Bend, and opened a law 
office in connection with Joseph Defrces, a young man of sound 
legal attainments. In February following, his health having 
become much impaired while at Balston Spa, in consequence of 
hard study and close application, he dissolved his connection 
with Mr. Defrees, and went to California, via Nicaragua, arriving 
at San Francisco, March 5th, 1853. He then traveled through- 
out the entire State, and finally settled at Napa City, and com- 
menced the practice of his profession, and continued it with suc- 
cess for 18 months. Being a youth in appearance, he at first did 
not meet with that encouragement to which his acquirements en- 
titled him, but having been retained in a ease of assault to com- 
mit murder, through the invitation of General Morehead to take 
charge of the case, he did so, and so eloquent was his argument 
to the jury, that although the]defendant was on his second trial, 
the verdict was rendered in his favor. Ilis argument and bear- 
ing in this ease brought him into notice, and into a very large 
practice, and soon after he was employed as counsel by the 
plaintiflp in a slander suit, meeting as opposing counsel the 
Attorney General of that State and Judge Aldrich. The 
argument' made in this case was pronounced by the opposing 
counsel as remarkabla able, and he at once took rank among 
the ablest lawyers in California, which honor he enjoyed du- 
ring his stay in that State, and was employed in nearly every 
criminal case that came up whele there, always meeting with 
success. In the spring of 1855, after a long and hard fought 
contest, in the case of Vines vs. Whitton — land case — against 
Judge Currey, opposing counsel, he gaining the case, in the Su- 
preme Court, he was offered a partnership by this gentleman, 
(who, in 1858 was the candidate on the Douglas Democratic tick- 
et for Supreme Judge, and for Governor in 1859) which he 
accepted, and removed to Benicia. The firm established a 
branch office at San Francisco. In this copartnership, having a 



26 ■ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

heavy practice, lie remained until the year 1855, then it became 
necessary for him to return home in consequence of ill-health in 
his father's family, but entertained the design of returning, 
■which design has never been carried out. While in Napa coun- 
ty, after a brief residence of six months, he was elected to the 
office of County Treasurer, which he filled for about two years. — 
During his residence "in the Land of Gold" he'was tendered the 
candidacy for the State Senate, on the Broderick and American 
tickets, but declined. Having returned home, owing to the con- 
tinued ill-health of members of his father's family, he found it 
impossible to return. He then opened an office at South Bend, 
in connection with Hon. N. Eddy, a distinguished lawyer of this 
State, with whom he remained about one year, when Mr. Eddy 
was appointed Attorney General for Minnesota, which dissolv- 
ed the partnership. He then formed a partnership with "W. G. 
George, Esq., of South Bend. Sometime in the month of Au- 
gust, 1853, he was married to Miss Mary W. Chess, of Pittsburgh, 
Penn. In August, 1860, he was put in nomination by the Re- 
publicans of his Senatorial District, in opposition to Col. John 
Smith, a leading and influential Democrat of St. Joseph county, 
over whom he was elected by 750 majority, making a good 
canvass. Mr. Smith not finding it convenient to enter inlo a 
joint canvass, he traversed the whole field alone — and the result 
was his triumphant election by so flattering a majority. As a 
Senator, the same zeal characterizes Mr. Miller that has always 
marked his course through life, in whatever position he has been 
called to act. As a lawyer, he stands pre-eminent — as a citizen, 
his moral worth is everywhere acknowledged, and although next 
to the youngest man in the Senate, no one enjoys more confidence 
or possesses more influence. In 1856, Mr. Miller took a very ac- 
tive part in the campaign, stumping the entire north part of the 
State for Fremont, and by his eloquence and power, materially 
strengthened the force of the Bepublican organization. Mr. Mil- 
ler's literary achievements, and his success in the profession of 
law in California, at a time when distinction in that line was earn- 
ed at the risk of the counsel's life, point him out as a man of ex- 
traordinary talent, perseverance and moral courage. The history 
of few men afi"ords such examples of unremitting labor in the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 27 

pursuit of knowledge and distinction. His future career will 
doubtless be as glorious and honorable as the past has been com- 
mendable. Post office address — South Bend, Ind. 



HENRY K. WILSON, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP SULLIVAN AND VIGO. 

Mr. Wilson -whs born in Green county, East Tennessee, Jan- 
uary 12th, 1815. His father, Adam Wilson, emigrated to Sulli- 
van county, Indiana, in the year 1831, when Henry K. Wilson 
was in his 17th year, and located on a tract of land in Jackson 
township, Sullivan county, and commenced clearing up a farm in 
that densely timbered region, and in which county Mr. Wilson 
has ever since resided. At that time and for four or five years 
thereafter, there were only two Whig voters in that township. De- 
voting most of his time to pursuits incident to that life, until the 
year 18.34, he entered the office of county Clerk, as Deputy, un- 
der Benjamin Wolfe, and served in that capacity until 18-10, when 
he was elected County Auditor, but still continued to transact the 
business of County Clerk. Serving as Auditor until 1845, he re- 
signed that position and was elected County Clerk, and 
served until the year 1852. He was married in the month of Feb- 
ruary, 1842, to Miss Mary E. Mann, daughter of Josiah Mann, 
of Sullivan county. In the spring, 1852, he retired to a farm, in 
which pursuit he was engaged for two years, and then was re-elec- 
ted to the office of County Auditor, which position he filled until 
March, 1860. His term of office expiring, he was put in nomina- 
tion for the position of State Senator on the Democratic ticket, in 
opposition to Captain Joseph W. Briggs, a prominent and influ- 
ential Republican of Sullivan county, and who deceased on the 
4th of February, 1861; and also in opposition to Wm. N. Hum- 
phreys, a Breckinridge candidate, over both of whom he was elec- 
ted by a majority of something over seven hundred votes. On 
the 10th of January, 1861, he received the necessary oath and 
took his seat for the first time in a Jjcgislative Assembly. The 
education of Mr. Wilson is such as he was able to obtain at the 
common schools of the early settlement of Sullivan county, and by 
his own application since entering the Clerk's office as deputy in 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

1S34, but by his native talent, industry, and thirst for knowledge, 
he has fitted himself for the transaction of any business, and in all 
the offices of trust to which he has been called by his fellow citi- 
zens, he has discharged the duties honestly and ^faithfully. — 
Mr. W. owes his success and honors to the industry and persever- 
ance that governed all his actions and undertakings in early 
life ; and now, in manhood, he can look back with pleasure and 
satisfaction upon his youthful efforts to gain character and dis- 
tinction among his fellow citizens, in which he has been so emi- 
nently successful. He was a Delegate to the Charleston Conven- 
tion, held in April, 1860, and endorsed Stephen A. Douglas, and 
was one of his firmest supporters in that county. 



PRANKLIT^" LANDERS, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP MORGAN AND JOHNSON. 

Mr. Landers was born in Morgan county, Indiana, March 22d, 
1825. His father, William Landers, was a farmer, and one of the 
first settlers of the White Eiver Valley, settling on the farm on 
which Mr. Franklin Landers was born, as early as the year 
1819, where he still resides, enjoying the fruits of the toils 
and privations which he endured during those early times — the 
first settlements of Indiana. In youth he was inured to all the 
labors of the farm, attending the conamon schools of that day 
in the winter season, and following the plow, clearing land, (fee, 
during the summers. Attaining his majority, he engaged in the 
profession of common school teacher, to which business he devo- 
ted his attention assiduously, and with the same industry that 
characterized his labors as a farmer during the years of his mi- 
nority. Having by close economy realized a cash capital of some 
$300, he embarked in mercantile pursuits in company with 
his brother, Washington Landers, at Waverly, Morgan county, 
Ind. In this connection he remained for four years, with success. 
After the dissolution of the partnership, he continued in the same 
business at Waverly, for about one year, when he purchased a 
tract of 640 acres of land, in Clay township, Morgan county, In- 
diana, laid out the site of the present town of Brooklyn, in 1854, 
and commenced the dry goods trade at that point, in which busi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 29 

ness he still continues, in connection with agricultural pursuits. 
Having since that time purchased 400 acres of land, within ten 
miles of his residence at Brooklyn, it might be said, that with 
him, merchandising is now a secondary consideration, as most of 
his time is devoted to the superintendeney of his agricultural af- 
fairs. On the 20th day of May, 1850, Mr. Landers was married 
to Miss Mary Shufflebarger, of Johnson county. In 1858, Mr. 
L. was a candidate of the Democratic party of Morgan coun- 
ty for Representative, and was defeated by the celebrated Mor- 
gan county election frauds, with which almost every reader of 
this sketch, is no doubt, familiar. His opposing candidate was 
Cyrus Whetzel, one of the first settlers of that county. Although 
the election of Mr. "Whetzel was said to have been secured by fraud, 
Mr. Landers refused to enter into contest, and as a natural con- 
sequence Mr. Whetzel enjoyed the Legislative honors of that ses- 
sion, which, by right, belonged to Mr. L. In July, 18G0, at a 
convention of the Democracy of his district, held at Morgantown, 
Mr. Landers was put in nomination for State Senator, in opposi- 
tion to Samuel P. Oiler, a leading Republican of Johnson county, 
over whom he was elected by 374- majority. By this vote 
was Mr. Landers' claims of 1858 triumphiantly vindicated. As a 
politician Mr. L. has never figured very conspicuously, yet he has 
always enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens, politically 
and otherwise — and no man in the senatorial body exerts a great- 
er influence for the public good. He ever strives to be found 
upon the side of right, and if the journal of the Senate is closely 
examined, it will be found that upon all questions afi"ecting the 
public welfare, his votes are for the "greatest good to the greatest 
number." 



JAMES S. HULL, 

SENATOR FROM RIPLEY COUNTY. 



Mr. Hull was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, near North 
Bend, the home of General Harrison, August 12th, 1821, where 
he resided until the year 1846, engaged in the occupation of a 
farmer. lu September of that year he removed to Biplcy county. 



30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Indiana, and settled on the farm where he now resides. On the 
9th of April, 1845, he was married to Miss Ellen, daughter of 
James Long, Esq., of Campbell county, Ky. After his removal to 
Ripley county in 1845, he engaged with diligence in agricultural 
pursuits for a period of seven years, when he was taken with the 
gold fever, and went to 'California, leaving his family on his 
farm. Spending four years in California, in the mining regions, 
in which time he accumulated some means, he returned to 
his home in Ripley county, and resumed the occupation of farm- 
ing, in which he is still engaged. Politically, Mr. Hull is of 
Whig antecedents, his first vote for President being cast for Hen- 
ry Clay, in 1844 ; in 1848 he endorsed the Buffalo Platform and 
voted for Martin Van Buren for President. While in California, 
finding that the two parties were entirely difi'erent on the slavery 
issue to what they were in the States, he attached himself to the 
Broderick wing of the Democratic party, and voted for Franklin 
Pierce for President. On his return home, one week previous to 
the election in 1856, he voted for John C. Fremont for the Presi- 
dency. Since that time he has been one of the most ardent and 
working Republicans in Ripley county. In 1858, he was the Re- 
publican candidate for Representative, and in that strong-hold of 
Democracy, ,was beaten only 25 votes; and to his efforts on the 
stump, more than to any one else, is owing the gain in the Re- 
publican vote of his county. In the month of June, 1860, he was 
placed in nomination for State Senator, in oppostion to Greene 
Durbin, a prominent and leading lawyer and Democrat of Ver- 
sailles, over whom he was elected by 312 majority, conclu- 
sively showing that his counsels and advice on the stump had at 
length prevailed. Although this is his first term in any Legis- 
tive body, he is marking out for himself a distinguished position, 
and commands the respect and confidence of both Republicans 
and Democrats. His Post office address is Elrod, Ripley county, 
Indiana. 



JAMES ODELL. 

SENATOR FROM CARROLL AND CLINTON COUNTIES. 

Mr. Odell was born in Wayne county, Indiana, September 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 31 

1 8th, 1810. His father, James Odell, removed from Wayne to 
Carroll county, in 1824, when James was in his 14th year. — 
Spending the winters of 1824-5, in Tippecanoe county, he then 
settled in the territory now embraced in Carroll county, about 2^ 
miles east of the present site of Delphi, in the spring of 1825, and 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, to which occupation Mr. Odell 
was reared, and in which business he is still engaged. In the 
month of July, 1836, he was married to Miss Sarah, daughter of 
Whitely Hatfield, at that time of Carroll county, but recently of 
Montgomery county, Ohio. The education of Mr. Odell was ob- 
tained at the common schools of that early day of Indiana's his- 
tory, but being studiously inclined, he improved every advantage, 
and thus secured an education that renders him competent to the 
discharge of any business. When about 22 years of age he was 
elected as Sheriff of his county, in which capacity he served for 
two years, when, on account of bad health he declined re-election 
and was succeeded by Samuel J). Gresham. For some three years, 
and until his marriage, after leaving the Sheriff's office, his health, 
precluded the possibility of his entering upon active, laborious 
life, during most of which time he was under medical treat- 
ment. About the year 1840 he was put in nomination by the 
Democracy of Carroll county for Commissioner, to which position 
he was elected without opposition, and in which he served three 
years. Educated under Democratic influences, Mr. Odell is 
still a Democrat, and warmly attached to the principles of that 
party. In 1848 he was nominated for, and elected as llepi'esent- 
ative to the Lower Branch of the Indiana Legislature, where he 
served with distinction. After the expiration of his term in the 
Legislature, he returned again to his farm, and in the year 1852 
commenced taking an active part in politics, speaking as occasion 
required, in nearly every school house in his county, and invaria- 
bly refusing any position tendered him by his party, till 1858, 
preferring to be a high private rather than officer. In the month 
of June, 1858, he was unanimously nominated for Senator by the 
Democracy of his District, and was elected by a majority of 160. 
His opposing candidate in this contest (which was close and spir- 
ited) was Dr. Charles Angel, of Pittsburg, Carroll county, a promi- 
nent and leading Republican. In this contest Jlr. 0. maintained 
manfully, the position, slavery was a local institution, and sub- 



V 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ject only to local law, while his opponent, maintained that as the 
people of the United States had an equal interest in the admis- 
sion of new States, and that as Congress was an agent of the whole 
people, they should determine the question. In short, Mr. An- 
gel, sustained the Philadelphia platform of 1856, while Mr. Odell 
sustained the Cincinnati platform of the same ocar. Mr. 0. serv- 
ed in the special and regular sessions of 1858-9, with marked 
ability, as a member of the Forty-first General Assembly of In- 
diana, he occupies a commanding influence, although the party 
of which he is a member is in decided minority. Post office ad- 
dress — Delphi, Carroll county, Ind. 



MARTIN M. RAY. 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP SHELBY AND HANCOCK. 

Mr. Ray was born in Butler county, Ohio, and is now 38 years 
of age. His grand father was born in Ireland, and conseuuently 
our Senator has the honor to be descended from a nation whose 
statesmen, historians, poets, and patriots, have lighted the world 
with their genius since the dawn of civilization in the Emerald 
Isle. Mr. Ray had several brothers and sisters, born in the 
States of Ohio and Kentucky.. Governor Ray, one of Indiana's 
most gifted statesmen, was his uncle. To his worth as a citi- 
zen, and qualifications for the honorable position confered upon 
him by the people of Indiana, thousands of the best citizens in 
the State can testify with pleasure. Martin M. Ray had not the 
power of wealth, nor the advantages which that potent auxiliary 
aflfords, in procuring an education ; but he acquired it, neverthe- 
less, his attainments being of a superior order. His bearing is 
that of a polished gentleman ; and kindness of heart and a dis- 
position to assist those who need assistance, are ruling and 
marked traits in his character. He commenced the practice of 
law at Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1844, with less than one dollar 
capital, and soon placed himself among the ablest lawyers of the 
State, not only at the Shelbyville Bar, but in the Supreme Court 
of the State, and in the Circuit and District Courts of the United 
States. At this time his reputation in the profession is all that 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 33 

he or bis friends can desire. He is one of the few whose services 
are always sought when important cases are to be phaced on trial 
in the higher courts. In his early political proclivities, he w.is a 
Whi<>- ; was Assistant Elector in 1844 .and was a delegate to 
the National Whig Convention, at Philadelphia, in 1848, in 
which General Taylor was nominated for the Prisidency. lie 
continued in the Whig ranks as long as the party had an exis- 
tence; when, in 1854, that old political organization dissolved, he 
connected himself with the Democratic party, and has participated 
actively in the struggles of parties ever since. In 1856, he was 
Democratic Elector for the Sixth Congressional District. In 
1858 he was the democratic nominee in the same District; and 
after a spirited canvass, in which he came fully up to the expec- 
tations of his friends, was defeated by Hon. Albert G-. Porter. In 
1860, he was a Delegate to the Baltimore Democratic Convention 
that nominated Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency. After- 
wards, Mr. M. was nominated against his own desires, and elected 
State Senator from the counties of Shelby and Hancock. In the 
Senate Mr. Ray maintains an enviable reputation as a man of 
sagacity in conducting public affairs. He will evidently, in the 
future, continue to act a conspicuous part in the State and Na- 
tion. His Post Office address is Shelbyville, Ind., a town toward 
the building up and improvement of which he has taken a pecu- 
liar interest. 



EDWARD H. M. BERRY, 

SENATOR FROM RUSH COUNTY. 



Mr. Beery was born in Mason county, Kentucky, September 
30th, 1823, and removed at a very early age, with his parents, to 
Rush county, Indiana, and there has made his home ever since. 
Brought up to follow the plow and swing the soythe, he learned 
habits of industry in his youth that have accompanied him to 
manhood, and for which he is noted in whatever he engages. — 
His opportunities for acquiring an education were not so good as 
he could have desired — that well-spring of erudition — the com- 
mon school, being the only temple of learning to which he had 
access in his youth. However, by dint of close application and 
3 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

employing all his leisure hours in the perusal of useful books, he 
was successful in achieving a victory over the difficulties encoun- 
tered in this regard. Though not making politics a business, he 
has identified himself somewhat with the fortunes of party since 
1S5-4. This is his first term in the General Assembly; and in 
the canvass of 18G0 he was a candidate for office for the first time, 
\ and his majority was the largest ever received by a Republican in 
Rush county, being more than double that of Col. Lane, the Re- 
publican candidate for Governor. His opponent was Wm. A. 
Cullen, Esq., a prominent and leading Democrat, and an attorney 
of no mean pretensions. Mr Berry has the honor to represent 
one of the finest agricultural counties in the State, and favorably 
. known on account of the morality, intelligence and enterprise of 
its people. His reputation as an honest, consistent, straightfor- 
ward man, was won through his life-long devotion to the cause 
of temperance. In youth he was temperate, and in his manhood 
he has not departed from his habits of total abstinence. In 1853 
. he was elected G. W. A', of the Grand Division of the Sons of 
Temperance for the State of Indiana. In 1854 he w'as chosen G. 
W. P. of the same Order. On two occasions he has represented 
the .Grand Division of Indiana in the National Division of North 
America. The first time in 1856, at Lexiugton, Ky., and in 1858, 
a.t Indianapolis, Ind. His advocacy of, and noble exertions in 
the cause, have received the commendations not only of the Order, 
but of the press and citizens generally of Indiana; and the pub- 
lisher of this volume regrets that he has not the papers at hand 
in order that he might append hereto some of these well merited 
encomiums. His labors were crowned with success, and through 
his means many almost confirmed inebriates were reclaimed to 
"make gjad the hearts of their friends." On more than one occa- 
sion he was solicited to enter the field under authority, and in the 
employ of the Order, bvit declined, preferring to battle the foe on 
his own responsibility, and without pay or reward, save that of 
an approving conscience, in having done his duty towards his un- 
fortuna^te fellows who had fallen into the channel of intemper- 
ance. Post office address — Milroy, Rush county, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 35 

CHARLES PINCKNEY FERGUSON, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF CLARK AND SCOTT. 

Mr Ferguson was born in Clark county, Indiana, November 
10th, 182-4. He is a son of Hon. Benjamin Ferguson, a member 
of tlie first Legislature that convened at Corydon, Harrison coun- 
ty, Indiana, and for many years subsequently a member of the 
Lower House from Clark county. Mr. Ferguson, jr., studied law 
with his brother, J. D. Ferguson, lately dec'd., who was a lawyer of 
considerable distinction, and a Representative from Clark county 
during the sessions of 1845-'46 and '47. The subject of this 
sketch has not taken a remarkably active part in politics. His 
first Presidential vote was given in 1848 for General Cass, and 
his votes since that date for Presidential candidates, have been 
given for Democrats; voting in 18G0 for Stephen A. Douglas. — 
He was elected Clerk of Clark county in 1851, opposed by Judge 
W. W. Goodwin, and, yielding universal satisfaction to his con- 
stituents in the discharge of the duties of the oflfice during that 
term, he was, in 1855, re-elected to the same office over Eli P. 
Calley, former Clerk. At the close of his last term, being no 
longer eligible for that office, he resumed the practice of his pro- 
fession at Charlestown. In his election to the Senate, liis com 
petitor was J. A. C. McCoy, a Republican. Post office address — 
Charlestown, Clark county, Ind. 



IIERVEY CRAVEN, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF MADISON AND GRANT. 

Mr. Craven was born in Franklin county, Indiana, February 
1st, 1823. His father, William Craven, was a farmer, and located 
in Franklin county, in 1815, one year previous to the admission 
of Indiana into the Union as a State, and to which occupation 
Hervey was reared, remaining on the farm which he helped to 
make, until his 20th year, when he commenced teaching school, 
to raise the means to enable him to commence a course of studies. 
In the year 1843 he entered Beach Grove Seminary in Union 
county, an institution conducted by a William Haughton. a Qua- 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ker, although the Seminary was not recognized as coming under 
the discipline of that sect of Christians. Leaving this school in 
1845, he entered the Oxford College, in Ohio, where he remained 
during that year and the year following. At the end of this time 
he returned to Union county, Indiana, and taught school for 12 
months in Billingsville. In the spring of '48, May IGth, he en- 
tered the law ofl&ce of J. S. Read, then of Liberty, Union, county 
and now of Counersville, Fayette county. He remained in this 
office until October 12th, 1849, teaching a five months school in 
the meantime, at Fanfield, Frankliu county. On leaving the office of 
John S. Read, he was lisenced to practice by Judges Elliott and 
Wick, under the old constitution of the State. November 24th, 
1849, he located in Pendleton, Madison county, and opened an 
office for the practice of his profession, where he still resides, 
enjoying a good practice. On the 1st of June, 1850, he was li- 
senced by the Judges of the Supreme Court — Blackford, Perkins 
and Smith. On the 25th of May, 1852, he was married to Miss 
Leah Bond, daughter of John Bond, of Dublin, Wayne county, 
Ind. In politics, Mr. Craven is a Republican, and warmly at- 
tached to the principles of the party. The first time that he was 
ever a candidate for any office was in 1856, when he became a 
candidate for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the dis- 
trict composed of the counties of Madison and Hancock, but was 
defeated. His opposing candidate was Richard Lake, a leading 
Democrat of that district. Devoting all his attention to the prac- 
tice, in the month of June, 1858, he yf:\s put in nomination for 
Senator by the Republicans of his district in opposition to An- 
drew Jackson, a farmer and miller of Madison county, and a 
prominent and leading Democrat, and over whom he was elected 
by a majority of 91. Serving in the sessions of '58 and '59, he 
is now in the Senate the List session of the term for which he was 
elected. He is chairman of the Committee on Corporations, and a 
member of the Judiciary, Education, and Military Aifairs commit- 
tees. As a Senator, Mr. Craven is deservedly prominent among 
his fellow members. Possessing large experience, varied infoi-- 
mation and a keen, unflagging intellect, he is at once a wise coun- 
sellor, and an able advocate of any measure he believes calculated 
to subserve the interests of the State. Pie has few superiors in 
any deliberative body. Post office address — Pendleton, Madison 
county, Ind. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 37 

ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OP CLAY AND PUTNAM. 

Mr. Johnston was born in Wilkes county, North Carolina, 
August 10th, 1810. He removed, with his father, to this State 
in 1818, and was married February 23d, 1835, to Miss Sarah Kel- 
ler, daughter of Mr. Jonathan Keller, late of Huntington county. 
In his early political career he was a Whig, but afterwards at- 
tached himself to the Democratic party. In 1844 he was a Whig 
candidate for Sheriff of Putnam county, opposed by S. Wright, 
Democrat, and S. Dicks, independent Whig, and elected by 200 
majority. In 1846 he was again a Whig candidate for the same 
office, opposed by Alex. Dunnington, and elected by 260 majority. 
In 1848 he was a candidate on the Whig ticket, for the Legisla- 
ture. This time his opponents were Dr. Dong and Mr. Isaiah 
Wright, and his majority 300. In 1852 he was a candidate for 
the same place, having for his competitors John Turk, John Mar- 
tin and Chris. Brown. His majority was about 300. This time 
he was the opposition temperance candidate. In 1850 he was 
again a candidate for Legislative honors, his opponents being 
Morgan Wright and Chris. Brown, and was elected J^by 18 major- 
ity. In 1854 he was again a candidate for the Legislature. This 
time he was in iavor of the Kansas-Nebraska bill and opposed to - 
the Maine Liquor Law and Know Nothingism. These were the 
questions that made up the subject matter of the canvass, and on 
them he was defeated by his opponent, Mr. James McMurray, 
who received 370 majority. In 1856 he ran for the Senate, on 
the Democratic ticket, against A. D. Hamrick, and was elected 
by 240 majority. In 1860 he was again a candidate on the same 
ticket for the same place, opposed by James McMurray, Republi- 
can, and James Gr. Martain, Breckinridge candidate, and was elec- 
ted by 300 majority over McMurray, and about 100 over both. — 
He has acted as Sheriff of Putnam county four years, and served 
seven terms in the Legislature — three times in the House and four 
times in the Senate. Mr. J. is a Popular Sovereignty Democrat, 
opposed to all kinds of political fanaticism, including Abolition- 
ism, Know Nothingism and the Maine Liquor Law, and as a mat- 
ter of compromise, is in favor of the Crittenden Amendments. — 
Post office address — Greencastle, Putnam county, Ind. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



OTHNIEL BEESON, 

SENATOR FROM WAYNE COUNTY. 

^ Mr. Beeson was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, May 
7th, 1813. and emigrated to Indiana Territory, with his parents 
in 1814, and settled on the West Fork of the White Water, in 
Wayne county, near the boundary line. In that early day, the 
region in which Mr. Beeson was reared, was the home of the In- 
dian, and the comforts of civilizasion were in an embryo state of 
aavancement, and school houses were of very rare occurrence. — 
M. B. took an active part in the sports of the new settlement; 
and like Nimrod, was passionately fond of hunting, in which 
manly and healthful recreation, he was quite an adept, and could 
send the bullet from his trusty rifle with unerring precision. 
However, he did not neglecthis industrial pursuits for the sports of 
field and forest, but worked with unflagging energy in clearing the 
forest ; and many the giant oak and beech that was prostrated by 
the sturdy strokes of his axe. Neither did he neglect the im- 
provement of the slender means of education that were within his 
reach, and by close study of the branches of an English education 
— being blessedwith a retentive memory — succeeded in making 
of himself a practical man — whether at home in attending to the 
jocal interest of his neighborhood, or in the Legislative Halls of 
the State. At the age of 21 years he married a lady who was a 
native of Pennsylvania, and settled on a farm in the south-west 
corner of Wayne county, and since that time has remained in ag- 
ricultural pursuits, except while in public life. He served in the 
State Convention of 1850 for the revision of ihe Constitution, and 
was elected in 1858 to a seat in the Senate for the term of four 
years, which has not yet expired. In all the relations of life Mr. 
B. possesses a reputation for honesty, integrity and capability, that 
he may well be proud of. As a Legislator his record is unim- 
peachable, and his votes attest the fact that he has had the inter- 
of the State at heart 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 39 



JASON N. CONLEY. 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF GREENE AND OWEN. 

3Ir. CoNLEY was born in Burk county, North Carolina, May 
14th, 1827. When about three years of age his father, William 
Conlcy, emigrated to Putnam county, Indiana, and settled on a 
farm near Greencastle, where Mr. Jason N. Conley resided until 
1850, spending a portion of his time, however, in Greencastle, at- 
tending college, and in Indianapolis attending a course of Lec- 
tures at the Medical School, in 1849-50. In July 1850, he loca- 
ted at Stanford, Monroe county, Ind., and commenced the prac- 
tice of medicine, where he remained until 1854, when he went 
to Chicago, and attended a course of Lectures at the Rush Medi- 
cal College of that city, during the winter of '54—5, graduating at 
the close of that session with honor. In February, 1853, he was 
married to Miss Frances C. Smith, daughter of John Smith, Esq., 
of Monroe county, but who deceased in the month of July, 1855. 
After completing his course at Chicago, he returned to Indiana, 
and located at Bloomfield, in Green county, and re-commenced 
the practice of medicine, Avhere he remained until February, 1857, 
and removed to a farm ten miles north-west of Bloomfield, 
on what is known as Scaffold Prairie, and engaged in agricultur- 
al pursuits, in connection with stock-grazing and trading, having 
re-married in the month of October, 1856 to Mrs. Kate Cressy, 
of Worthington, Ind. From the date of his removal on to his 
farm in the spring of '57, he has devoted his attention exclusively 
thereto, with an occasional professional visit among his immediate 
neighbors. His father being an ardent Whig, Jason N. Conley 
was reared under the influence of the principles of that party, 
but on attaining to his majority, he took no decided or active 
part with either political party; having decided upon his profes- 
sion, he devoted all his time to its pursuits. At the rise of Know 
Nothingism in 1854, however, he took a decided stand, and ever 
since has identified himself with the Democratic party, and has 
since that time exerted all his influence for the success of its 
principles. In the month of October, 1858, he was elected as an 
independent candidate for State Senator. This position was forced 
upon him in consequence of the ultra ground assumed by the Ad- 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



ministration. His opposing candidate was William Mack, an 
able attorney, and leading Administration Democrat of Green 
county, and over whom he was elected by a majority of 89. Serv- 
ing in the special and and regular sessions of '58 and '59, he is 
now in the Senate the second regular session, in all of the pro- 
ceedings of which he has taken an active part, and no member of 
the Forty-first General Assembly stands higher in the estimation 
of his constituents or fellow members. On Tuesday, 29th of Jan- 
uary, on the adoption of a series of resolutions on the state of 
the Union, recommended by a minority of the Committee on Fed- 
eral Relations, and proposed as an amendment to the joint reso- 
lutions reported by a majority of said committee, Mr. Conley, 
made what has been characterized, by able men, as being one of 
the best efforts on his side of the Senate, offered on the occasion; 
and the publisher of this work much regrets that his space will 
not permit him to give that speech in full; but must content him- 
self by adding that it was a credit both to the head and heart of 
its author, the Union and patriotic sentiments of which do honor 
to him as an American citizen. His Post office address is Worth- 
ington, Green county, Ind. 



HORATIO C. ISTEWCOMB, 

SENATOR FROM MARION COUNTY. 



Mr. Neavcomb was born in Wellsborough, Pennsylvania, De- 
cember 20th, 1821. He emigrated from Courtland, county, New 
York, to Jennings county, Indiana, in 1833. He is not a grad- 
uate of any institution of learning except the common school. — 
But with men of the vigorous intellect and sterling talent pos- 
sessed by Mr. Newcomb, it is not necessary that colleges should 
be brought into requisition to enable them to travel with distinc- 
tion the paths of learning, or to make their mark in the halls of 
legislation or the professions. Being of a practical urn of mind, 
Mr. N. devoted his time to the attainment of such knowledge as 
would, in riper years, redound to his advantage, and not merely 
leave a vague recollection of having read a great number of vol- 
umes. He preferred the law as a profession, and prosecuted his 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 41 

studies under the prec-eptorship of AVilliain A. Bullock, Esq., of 
Vernon, Ind., and was licensed to practice by Judges Miles C. 
Eggleston and John W. Thompson, in January 1844. He re- 
moved from Vernon to Indianapolis in December, 1S46, where he 
has since resided and practiced his profession. In the city of In- 
dianapolis, his standing as a lawyer and worth as a citizen, raised 
him to the Mayoralty in 1849. In 1851 he was again elected to 
that honorable position. Was elected, along with Dr. Ilervey, a 
Representative in the Legislature from Marion county, at the 
October election, 1854. His opposing candidates were Hon. 
Isaac Blackford — the eminent jurist, who had long been a Judge 
of the Supreme Court of the State-— and Hon. Samuel Corey, who 
has been Associate Judge of the Marion Circuit Court, and Judge 
of the Probate Court of the same county. He was not afterwards 
a member of the General Assembly until the present session — 
believing in t!ie principle of rotation in office, and that other men 
had the same right to mako laws for tlie people. At tie October 
election, 18G0, he was elected Senator for four years, his oppo- 
nent being Hon. Stephen Major, late Judge of the Fifth Judicial 
Circuit, When there was a Whig party, Mr. Newcomb was a 
Whig, but has, acted with the Republicans since the advent of 
that organization. Mr. Newcomb occupies a high position in 
the Senate as a sagacious and prudent legislator, and among 
the members of his profession is acknowledged to be one of the 
al)lest lawyers in the State. Post office address — Indianapolis, 
Ind. 



MEEDY W, SHIELDS, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF JENNINGS AND JACKSON. 

Mr. Shields was born in Sevier county, Tennessee, on the 8th 
day of July, 1805. When about 3 years of age his parents re- 
moved to Indiana, and settled in Harrison county, where they 
remained six years, when they removed to Washington county, 
now Jackson, his present place of residence. At that time, the 
territory embraced in the counties which he represents as Sena- 
tor, was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited by Indians, and no 
white settlers within ten miles. His father, James Shields, kept 
a trading house, near the present site of Seymour, where he sup- 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETC^ES. 

i 

plied the Delaware Indians with such necessaries as their wants 
demanded. Mr. James Shields had located at this point hy spe- 
cial permission of the General Government. This trading point 
was occupied by Floyd & Craig, who furnished the merchandise, 
while Mr. Shields was to put in the products of his farm. In time 
the Delaware Indians left for the " Far West," when his trading 
post went down. At that time there was no pre-emption act of 
the General Government, but Mr. Shields making application, he 
was granted a pre-emption of the land on which the subject of 
this sketch now resides. From eighteen years of age, Mr. Shields 
was occupied as a trader on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, until 
the year 1832, occupying a period of about 10 years. At the ex- 
piration of this time he received an appointment as Lieutenant 
in Captain Ford's company of U. S. Mounted Hangers, and or- 
ganizing immediately, the company took up their line of march 
for the scene of the Black Hawk war. At Chicago they received 
orders to repair to Dickson's Ferry, on Rock river, to join Gen- 
eral Atkinson, who had command of the army which defeated 
Black Hawk. At Dickson's Ferry they received orders to repair 
to Fort Armstrong, situated at Rock Island. Remained here 
about one month, while the cholera was raging. At this place, 
from General Scott, who was there in person, they received orders 
to march to Fort Gibson, in Arkansas, which they did, where they 
remained about one year, when Mr. Shields resigned and returned 
home, in company with a body of twenty men whom he had> en- 
listed. He was tendered, while at Fort Gibson, a commission as 
Lieutenant in the Dragoon service, which he declined, hav- 
ing other designs in view. Returning home, he married Miss 
Eliza Ewing, daughter of James Ewing, formerly of New Jersey, 
and engaged in agricultural pursuits, in connection with general 
trading. The first business of a public and political nature in which 
Mr. Shields engaged, was the distribution of the Surplus Revenue 
Fund for Jackson county, the appointment of which he received 
from the Governor. This was about the year 1838-9. The next 
step in political life, he was elected to represent Jackson county 
in the House of Representatives in 1845-0, in which capacity he 
served one year. Declining any further political honors, he con- 
tinued in his avocation of farming till the year 1852, when the 
0. & M. R. R. was first put in contemplation, and became one of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 43 

the charter members, in which capacity he served until the road 
was finished as far as Seymour, when, being a contractor, it be- 
came necessary for him to resign his charter membership. lie 
was the only Western man who had any contract on that road, of 
which he built fifteen miles. The road being finished he engaged 
in merchandising and milling for about five years, when he turn- 
ed his whole attention to farming and general trading. In 1853- 
he was elected as Senator for Jackson and Scott counties, fur four 
years, being elected without opposition. Passing over a period 
of seven years, he was again elected Senator, his opponent being 
Mr. Amasa Gilbert, a prominent and influential Republican, over 
whom he was elected by a majority of 14-i votes, the Democratic 
ticket being defeated by some 300 votes.. In politics Mr. Shields 
is a Democrat, and always has been — firm and unflinching — for \ 
the Union first and last. Few men have done as much for the 
cause of public improvement as jMr. Shields. The town of Sey- 
mour, in Jackson county, at the crossing of the Jeffersonville and 
Ohio and Mississippi Railroads, one of the most flourishing places 
in the State, whose business streets remind the stranger of the 
crowded marts of a city, is a lasting indorsement of his public 
spirit and untiring energy. This town was laid off into building- 
lots in 1852, and such were the liberal terms upon which, the pro- 
prietor, Mr. Shields, disposed of them to actual settlers, that poi- 
sons of limited means were enabled to invest their ready money 
in building, so that in a few years one thousand inhabitants, and 
a great number of fine buildings, both private and public, consti- 
tuted the commencement of a town which is destined to be, in a 
few years, a place of several thousand inhabitants, and one of the 
most important business points in the State. The O. and M. R. 
R. Co. have in contemplation at this point the erection of many 
fine buildings and machine shops. This will add some 500 in- 
habitants and a largely increased business. Mr. Shields is the 
proprietor of a large tract of land in and around the town, many 
parcels of which he has disposed of on terms more calculated to 
advance the prosperity of the place than to swell his own cofters. 
He has labored indefatigably for the interests of Seymour, and 
has succeeded in building up a miniature city that is an eloquent 
monument to his energy, industry and public enterprise. Mr. 
Shields is emphatically a working man, whether in private or 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

public life. His advantages ia youth were not propitious in any 
sense, yet by his native genius and unceasing effort he has carved 
out for himself an enviable position among Indiana's great men. 
He is a farmer, a trader, a patron of public improvement and edu- 
cation, a statesman, and more than all, a benevolent gentleman 
and kind neighbor. Post office address — Seymour, Ind. 



SOLOMON BLAIR, 

SENATOR PROM THE COUNTIES OP HENDRICKS AND BOONE. 

Mr. Blair was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, in March, 
1829. He is a lawyer by profession and graduated at Union Law 
College, Cleveland, Ohio. He was elected to the Senate of Indi- 
ana from Hendricks county in October, 1856, by IGl majority 
over George Kreigh, the Demo^^ratic candidate. In 18G0 he was 
re-elected to the Senate from the counties of Hendricks and 
Bone by a majority of 724 votes over the Hon. James M. Gregg. 
Mr. Blair has always belonged to the same political party. Un- 
like many Republicans he was not, in the " good old times," an 
"old fashioned Whig," because when that party existed Mr. Blair 
was too young to be identified with political organizations. He is 
an ardent member of his party, and worked industriously for the 
advancement of its principles and the election of its leaders. 
Aside from his political predilections he is a gentleman in a 
peculiar manner. He is not afflicted with the self-sufficiency and 
premature importance of many j^asi'-flegged statesmen who, pos- 
sessed of not quite a mediocrity of natural capacity, and not a 
tithe of the influence they assume, bluster so much and legislate 
so little. Mr. Blair is conservative in everything touching State 
or national politics, and is one of the safest and most practical 
men in the body of which he is a member. Post office address — 
Plainfield, Hendricks county, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 45 



QUINTON LOMAX, 

senator] from the counties of CRAWFORD AND ORANGE. 

Mr. LoMAx was born in the State of Tennessee, November 12, 
1806, and emigrated to Orange county, Indiana, in October, 1815. 
In 1826 he was married to Miss Nancy Y. Davis, formerly of 
Kentucky. Mr. L., has filled many county and township offices, 
in which he has invariably acquitted himself with credit and to 
the satisfaction of his constituents. He has also filled several 
military offices with distinguished honor. He is one of those 
gentleman whose political principles have not been governed by 
every wind of doctrine. His political faith is now what it was 
when his earliest aspirations in that line caused him to take an 
active part in political disputations. He has served three terms 
in the State Senate — two sessions in 1858, and the present one. 
In the canvass of 1858 he was elected without opposition. Mr. L. 
is a practical man in every sense of the word. He is untiring in 
manual labor in his private avocations, taking hold with his own 
hands and driving the plow and the axe, and tending, from the time 
the seed is buried in the soil till the season of golden harvest, the 
crops that sweep over the stormy main under the Avhite sails of 
our merchantmen, and whose equivalent in balance of trade fills 
our national coffers and infuses life into every department of trade 
and industry. Post office address — Paoli, Indiana. 



DAVID STUDABAKER, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF ADAMS, WELLS AND JAY. 

Mr. Studabaker was born on the l2th of August, 1827, in . 
Mercer county, Ohio. In 183-i his father, Peter Studabaker, emi- 
grated to Adams county, Indiana, and settled near the Wabash 
river, in the township of that name, and commenced clearing up 
a farm in the dense timber of that region. Mr. S. devoted his 
early years to the labors of the farm as far as his health would 
permit, as he did not possess a constitution capable of enduring 
great hardships. He remained in this occupation until 1848, 
when, having attained his majority, commenced a course of 



46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

studies in the Jay Seminary, located at Portland, but which has 

since gone down. Finishing his course at this institution he 
commenced the study of law with Judge Ilaynes, of Portland. 
Pursuing this study with industry and vigor, he was admitted to 
practice in May, 1852, and immediately thereafter located at De- 
catur, Adams county, Indiana, his present place of residence, and 
engaged in the practice of his profession; and by strict attention 
and honest industry he now enjoys a good share of legal busi- 
ness, and as a lawyer ranks high among the disciples of Black- 
stone. Mr. S. has always been something of a politician, but 
never, until the fall of 1852, did he engage actively as a parti- 
san. In the month of July of that year, at a judicial conven- 
tion, held at Fort Wayne, he was put in nomination by the De- 
mocracy of Adams and Allen counties as their candidate for 
Prosecuting Attorney, to which position he was elected — there 
being no opposing candidate— for two years. The writer would 
here remark that Hon. James W. Borden, of Allen county, and 
late Commissionor to the Sandwich Islands, was put in nomina- 
tion at the same time for Common Pleas Judge, a place for which 
he was eminently fitted. As a Prosecuting Attorney Mr. Studa- 
baker met the expectations of his friends, and was one of the best 
that district ever had. At the expiration of his term of office in 
1854 as Prosecutor, he was taken up and supported by the De- 
mocracy of Adams county as their candidate for Representative, 
and elected over Rev. A. Douglas by a majoiity of 212 votes, be- 
ing one of the two Democrats returned from Northern Indiana 
that year. As a Representative he made his mark in the sessions 
of the General Assembly for 1855, and so well were his servi 
ces appreciated, that in the memorable campaign of 185G he was 
returned by an increased vote, his opposing candidate being Perry 
Crabb, a merchant of Decatur, and a prominent and influential 
Republican. Serving out this term with signal honor to himself, 
he was nominated in 1858 by the Democracy of Adams, Wells 
and Jay, as a candidate for State Senator, and was elected by a 
flattering majority. His opposing candidate was George A. Dent, 
a farmer of Adams county, and a leading Republican. Being 
elected for four years he is now in his seat during the second ses- 
sion of the term for which he was elected. As a citizen, a friend, 
a politician, a lawyer, and a public servant, Mr. Studabaker has 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 47 

ever stood well, leaving every position to wliicli he has been cho- 
sen by his fellow-citizens, with a record untarnished with a single 
blemish or neglect of duty, and no man of his age in Indiana oc- 
cupies a more prominent position as an attorney and politician 
than Mr. S. He is a self-made man, and to his own exertions he 
owes all that he has achieved. He was married to ]Miss Harriet 
Evans, daughter of Judge John K. Evans, of Fort Wayne, Indi- 
ana, October 2Gth, 1854. Post office address — Decatur, Adams 
county, Indiana. 



GEORGE B. GRCTBB, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF IIA:\III,T0N AND TIPTON. 

Mr. GrRUBB was born in Fayette county, Ohio, March llth, 
1821. In 183G his fjxther, John Grubb, emigrated to Randolph 
county, Ind., and settled on a farm in West River township, where 
Mr. 'jrubb, jr., remained three years, engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits and the recreations incident to a country life. At the age of 
nineteen he left his parents, and going to Noblesville, Hamilton 
county, commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Boh- 
rer, which studies he dilligently pursued three years. At the expi- 
ration of that time, having made considerable proficiency in the 
study of the healing art, he opened an office at Strawtown, his 
present place of residence, and commenced successfully the prac- 
tice of his profession. In the year 18">2 he abandoned his pro- 
fession, and moved on to a farm, which he Imd purchased, adjoin- 
ing the village, and turned his attention to agricuhure, in which 
business he is still engaged. In the year 1845 he married Miss 
Almeda Cole, of Hamilton county, with whom he lived until her 
decease, in February, 1851. In January, 1855, he was again 
married, to Catharine Peck, daughter of William Peck, Esq., of 
Hamilton county. In politics Mr. Grubb has always taken a 
lively interest, though not an active part. He was brought up 
under the influences of the old Whig party. On the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise and dissolution of the Whig party, 
Mr. G. became identified with the Republican organization, and 
has acted in its ranks ever since. In March, 1860, he was put in 
nomination by the Republican party of his district for Senator, to 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

whieli position he was elected by near 1,000 majority. His oppo- 
sing candidate was Dr. Eleazer Williamson, a leading Democrat 
of Hamilton county. As a public servant Mr. G. is active, and 
watchful of the interests of his constituents — his votes always 
being cast on the side where wisdom and prudence dictated they 
should be found. He is not an orator, making no particular pre- 
tensions in that way, yet he has, on several occasions, made 
speeches that would do no discredit to any public man. Post 
office address — Strawtown, Hamilton county, Ind. 



THOMAS SHOULDERS, 

SENATOR PROM THE COUNTIES OF PIKE, DUBOIS AND GIBSON. 

]Mr. Shoulders was born in Warren county, Kentucky, Janu- 
ary 25th, 1806. His father, Cader Shoulders, emigrated to this 
State in the year 1823, and located in Dubois county, near the 
present residence of Thomas Shoulders. By occupation his 
father wa.sachair maker, but Thomas was I'eared to the occupation 
of a farmer, to which his whole life has been devoted. His ed- 
ucation was confined to that afforded by the common schools of 
those early times in the history of Indiana. In his nineteenth 
year, and two years after his emigration to this State, Thomas 
Shoulders was married to Miss Polly Boler, of Kentucky, and 
immediately thereafter commenced house keeping in a log cabin 
in Dubois county, at that time quite new and wild. With the 
hardships incident to pioneer life, Mr. Shoulders and his wife had 
to contend, but being nerved with brave hearts and strong arms, 
they overcame all obstacles, and secured a competence against 
want. About one year after their marriage, he purchased a farm 
and settled at once on his own land, and dwelt in his own home. 
In 1831 Mr. Shoulders received a commission as Captain of the 
Militia, in which capacity he served four years, when he was pro- 
moted to the position of Colonel of the Forty-third Regiment of 
the Indiana Militia, where he served five years, when he resigned 
his commission. 

In the year 1838 he was appointed by the Board of County 
Commissioners as Collector of the revenue of Dubois County. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 49 

Filling this position one year, he was elected to the office of As- 
sociate Judge of Dubois county, in which he served five years. 
In 1856 he was elected to represent Dubois county in the lower 
branch of the Indiana Legislature, where he served two years. 
Filling this position, as all others to which he had been called by 
his fellow-citizens, with honor and credit, he was taken up in ISGO 
as a candidate for State Senator for his district, and elected over 
Harvey Green, a prominent Republican of Dubois county, by 1329 
majority. His first vote for president was for General Jackson, in 
in 1828; his second for Van Buren, and has always voted for Dem- 
ocratic candidates for the Presidency, down to Douglas in 18G0. All 
through life Mr. Shoulders has applied himself to manual labor. 
Making his home in a new country, among the timber, it was no 
small amount of hard work that sufficed to prostrate and clear 
away the forest where his broad, fertile fields now appear. In- 
dustrious in every sense of the word, he availed himself of all the 
advantages of mental culture he could command; and is now, for 
the chances he has had, one of tde ablest men in the Indiana 
Senate. As prudent in the halls of legislation as he is at home 
in the conduct of his business, his constituents will never regret 
having selected him to represent their interests in the General 
Assembly of the State. Post office Address — Celisteen, Dubois 
county, Indiana. 



THOMAS R. COBB, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF LAWRENCE AND MARTIN. 

Mr. Cobb is the son of Dixon Cobb, and was born in Lawrence 
county, Indiana, July 2d, 1829. His father was a farmer, and 
was one of the earliest settlers in Lawrence county, locating in 
what is now Indian Creek township, as early as the year 1816, 
where he resided about sixteen years, and then removed into 
Perry township in the same county. Residing on this form until 
1836, he removed to "Warren county, Ind., and lived there about 
one year. He then emigrated to Illinois, in which State he resided 
about three years, and returned to Indiana ; and after spending 
some two years in Clark and Clay counties, he returned to Indian 
4 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Creek township, Lawrence county, where he remained until the 
year 1855 ; he then removed to Bedford, the county-seat of Law- 
rence county, where he still resides. These removals were all 
made during the minority of Thomas R., who, with his father, 
engaged in agriculture. He attended the common schools of the 
country as time and occasion would permit. In his eighteenth 
year Mr. Cobb commenced a course of studies at the County Sem- 
inary at Bedford, where he remained about eight months, and then 
engaged in teaching school for a period of about one year. He 
then entered the Bloomington University, remaining about live 
months, taking a course in the Literary Department. At the 
expiration of this time he was married to Miss Caroline, daughter 
of Archibald Anderson, of Lawrence county. Having determined 
upon the law as his profession, he entered the Law School at 
Bloomington. Attending one session in 1853—1, in the Spring of 
the latter year, he returned to Bedford, and was licensed to prac- 
tice at the March term of the Lawrence Circuit Court, and April 
term of the Common Pleas Court for the same county. At the 
May (185G) term of the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana 
he was licensed as a practitioner at that Bar, and at the May (1858) 
term of the U. S. District Court, was also licensed to practice in 
that Court by Judge McLean. Immediately after his admission 
to practice by the Circuit Court of Lawrence county, in 1854, he 
entered upon the practice of his profession at Bedford, in com- 
pany with Hon. Cyrus L. Dunham, with whom he remained three 
years, when, Mr. Dunham being appointed Secretary of State, to fill 
the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Daniel McClure, in 
consequence of hisappointmentas Paymaster for the Southern De- 
partment of the Army, the partnership was dissolved. At the 
time of this writing he is practicing in company withN. F.Malott, 
enjoying a very lucrative practice. This is acknowledged to be 
one of the leading law firms of that part of the State. As an at- 
torney Mr. Cobb stands high, his legal attainments being thor- 
ough in all the branches of the law. In acquiring his legal edu- 
cation, with the most unremitting perseverance he laid under 
contribution the learning of all the eminent jurists of Europe 
and America. Tracing the plain, common -sense propositions of 
Blackstone, and ruminating over the mystified pages of Chitty, 
seemed to him a pleasure rather than a task, and now, although 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 51 

engaged in a large practice, much of his time is spent reading the 
standard authorities, a practice that many hiwycrs might imitate 
with profit to themselves and clients. 

Politically, Mr. Cobb is a Democrat, to the principles of ^yhich •- 
party he has ever given his adherence. In 184S, when Cass, Tay- 
lor, and Van Buren were candidates for the Presidency, he had 
not attained his majority, but feeling a deep interest in the suc- 
cess of Mr. Cass, he took the stump in his behalf, and made a 
vigorous canvass of Lawrence county, and when, in November, the 
result was declared, Cass had a respectable majority in that county, 
which was mainly attributable to the efforts of Mr. C. His 
speeches were received with the warmest commendations by 
the Democracy, while the opposing parties pronounced them able, 
logical and eloquent. In "1852, when Pierce and Scott were can- 
didates, he again took the stump, and canvassed not only his own 
county, but Martin, and with the same degree of marked success that 
attended his canvass in 1848. Passing over a period of four years, 
during which time he devoted his attention exclusively to the 
practice of his profession, in 1856 he was nominated by the Dem- 
ocracy of Lawrence county as a candidate for Representative in 
the Legislature. His opposing candidate was Robert Boyd, a 
leading, popular and influential Republican of that county. In 
this contest Mr. Cobb made a thorough and energetic canvass of his 
county, but was defeated by a majority of only one vote. In 
1854 Hon. George G. Dunn, candidate for Congress in that dis- 
trict, received a majority of 553 votes in Lawrence county. This, 
in two years, was a decided and marked change, and when it is 
considered that there had been no radical change in party issues 
the popularity and honesty of Mr. C. will become apparent to 
every reader. Mr. Boyd was re-elected in 1858, his opponent 
being A. H. Gainey. In 1853, when the Lecompton policy was 
thrust upon the country, Mr. Cobb was one of the first Democrats 
in Lawrence county to assume a position in opposition thereto ^ 
and espouse the cause of Stephen A. Douglas and his principles. 
Becoming an anti-Lecompton candidate for the State Senate in 
that year in opposition to Hon. Ambrose B. Carlton, (Lecom])ton) 
the Republicans refused to put in nomination a candidate for that 
position, and the result was, that in his own county he received a 
majority of 499 votes ; Mr. Carlton receiving a majority in Mar- 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

tin county, reduced his (Cobb's) majority in the district to 230 
votes. Serving in the special and reguLir sessions of 1858-9 with 
distinction, and with the same honest, straight-forward consist- 
ency that has been his leading traits through life, he made many 
warm personal and political friends; and in the session of 18G0. 
although in a decided minority in the Senate, he wielded an influ- 
ence second to no other man in that body. At home, as a citizen, 
a lawyer and a politician, he enjoys the utmost confidence and 
good will of his fellow citizens. As a Senator, he is watchful of 
the interests confided to his care, and is the friend and advocate of 
all measures that look to the protection of the laboring classes. 
Post office address — Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana. 



DAVID TURNER, 

SENATOR FROM LAKE, PORTER, JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES. 

Mr. Turner was born on the 17th of December, 1817, in 
Trumbull county, Ohio. When Mr. T. was quite young, hi^** 
father, Samuel Turner, removed to Butler county, Pennsylvania, 
where he resided until 1834. At that time he emigrated to La 
Porte county, Indiana, where Mr. Turner, jr.. remained about three 
years, and then located in Eagle Creek township. Lake county. 
In that township h^ resided some ten years, pursuing the avocation 
of a farmer. He was married in 1844 to Miss Caroline, daughter 
of William Bissell. In 1845, he was elected as Probate Judge of 
Lake county, (an office which existed under the ©Id Constitution- 
of Indiana) and served three years — until the new Constitution 
was adopted. In the year 1850 he removed to Crown Point, where 
he still resides, and engaged in the dry goods trade, which busi- 
ness he still continues. In 1854 he was nominated by the 
Republican party, and elected to represent Lake county in the 
Genei-al Assembly. Mr. T. had always been a Free-Soil Dem- 
ocrat until the formation of the Republican party, when he at- 
tached himself thereto, becoming a warm, ardent and devoted ad- 
vocate of its principles. Serving as Representative for two years 
he was, in 1858, taken up by the Republican party of the Sena- 
torial District which he now represents, nominated and elected 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 53 

for four years. Mr. T. was one of the first men to move in the 
cause of Temperance in Lake county, and what has been done in 
that cause in that county is attributable to his efforts more than 
to those of any other man. In every phase of life Mr. Turner 
has been noted for his promptness and industry. In politics he 
is a Republican, earnestly devoted to the principles of that party. 
Although possessing a large share of political influence, he does 
not, as a matter of course, — like many prominent men of all po- 
litical organizations, — arbitrarily constitute himself a leader of his 
party, and dictate its action and policy. With him polities is 
not a trade; his taste for disputation and excitement not being 
sufficiently intense to make it so. In the Senate Chamber he en- 
joys an enviable reputation as an efficient and working member. 
He spares no labor nor pains in advocating the interests of his 
District or State, and ever guards with a jealous care against the 
tricks and chicanery of politicians, who make it a point at every 
session of the Legislature to procure the passage of measures more 
calculated to advance their own interests than those of the State. 
At home he enjoys that popularity which is always the result of 
an unblemished private life and the faithful performance of duties 
in public positions. Post office address — Crown Point, Lake 
county, Indiana. 



HENRY CAMPBEIil., 

SENATOR FROM FOUNTAIN COUNTY. 

Mr. Campbell, the son of John Campbell, was born in Warren 
county, Ohio, January 10th, 1821, and when about ten years of 
ace his parents emigrated to Indiana and settled on Cole Creek, 
near the town of Hillsborough, Fountain county, Indiana, where 
he remained some two years, and then removed to Shawnee Prai- 
rie, four miles east of Attica. Here Henry remained, devoting 
all his time to farming, with but litttle opportunity for education 
until he was twenty-one years of age, when, in February, 1842, 
he left the farm and entered the Indiana Asbury University at 
Greencastle, in which he remained for nearly two years, keeping 
" Bachelor's Hall," and pursuing his studies with industry and 
vigor. To enable him to attend this college and obtain an edu- 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

cation he had borrowed a small sum of money from a cousin of 
his, (John C. Campbell,) and which, after his education was com- 
pleted, he taught school to repay. The writer would here remark 
that in his minority, opportunities for obtaining a common school 
education were very limited, but being determined to acquire an 
education he devoted his evenings and leisure hours to hard 
study, walking four miles every Sunday to recite the lessons 
learned during the week, to D. K. Hays, M. D., of Attica ; who is 
still living, and upon whom he looks as being his earliest and best 
friend. Having remained at Greencastle as long as his time and 
means would permit, taking a regular course as far as he went, he 
returned to Fountain county, where, as before remarked, he en- 
gaged in school teaching to liquidate the indebtedness he had in- 
curred in obtaining his education. On the 19th day of Febru- 
ary, 184:5, he was married to Miss Minerva J., daughter of Rev. 
Wm. Dixon, of Fountain county, settled on a farm in Montgomery 
county, in what is known as Walnut Grove, where, in company with 
his brother William, who was a traveling minister, but now de- 
ceased, he engaged successfully in agricultural pursuits. At the end 
of two years his wife died. He then returned to Attica and entered 
into the grain and produce trade. In this business he remained 
something over a year, and then engaged in mercantile pursuits 
for some six years ; in the meantime marrying Miss Elizabeth, 
daughter of George Parnell, of Fountain county, with whom he 
lived some three years, when death again entered his home and 
carried away his second wife. In May, 1856, he was married to 
Miss Mary F., daughter of James Jones, of Attica, and soon there- 
after abandoned his mercantile pursuits and took charge of the 
hotel in Attica, known as the " llevere House," which he kept for 
some two years; after which removed to a farm in Jackson tovvn- 
ship. Fountain county, where he still resides, engaged in tilling 
the soil. During the existence of the Whig party he was a mem- 
ber of that organization, but upon its dissolution and the rise of 
Republicanism, he became one of its members. In August, 1860^ 
at a convention of the Republican party of Fountain county, he 
was put in nomination for the position of State Senator. His op- 
posing candidate was Harrison Reynolds, a gentleman of promi- 
nence and influence, who had occupied a seat in the State Senate 
in the session of 1854, over whom he was elected by a majority 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 55 



of ninety-nine votes. Mr. C. is a gentleman of pleasing deport- 
ment and commanding appearance, kind and courteous iu his in- 
tercourse with his fellow members, watchful of the interests of his 
constituency, and a noble example of what man may do by in- 
dustry, perseverance and close application. Post office address — 
Wallace, Fountain county, Indiana. 



CHARLES LEFFERTS MURRAY, 

SENATOR fro:.! THE COUNTIES OP LAGRANGE AND ELKHART. 

Mr. Murray was born in 1815, in a small county town called 
Murraysfield, in Bradford county, Pennsylvania. His parents 
came to that place from the city of Philadelphia. He is pater- 
nally Scotch and maternally English. His paternal grandfather 
was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and his profession (re- 
ligious) was, first a Baptist, and then a Universalist minister. 
His maternal grandfather was a Quaker and followed the business 
of an architect in Philadelphia, where Mr. C. L. Murray's parents 
were born. Soon after his birth his parents moved to a small 
village in the same State, called Athens, or Tioga Point, on the 
Susquehanna river, where his father received the appointment of 
Justice of the Peace for life from the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
under the old Constitution. About the year 1828 he engaged^ 
with his brother-in-law, Warren Jenkins, to learn the printing 
business, in Towanda, the county seat. The paper supported J . 
Q. Adams for President. In 1829 he moved, with his brother- 
in-law's family, to Milan, Huron county, Ohio, where he was en- 
gaged in the first anti-masonic printing office in that State. In '31 
Mr. Jenkins moved his press to Columbus, Ohio, to which place 
young Murray followed him as an apprentice. About the year 
1833, having the rest of his time given him by his brother-in- 
law, Mr. M. repaired to the West to seek his fortune. Having a 
relative in Jacksonville, Illinois, on his father's side, (Murray 
McConnel,) he worked in that place for a year upon a newspaper 
published by Mr. Edwards. Taking the prevailing disease of the 
country, the ague, and shaking nearly every other day during 
his stay, he concluded to return to Columbus, Ohio. An oppor- 



5G BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

tunity soon offered itself in the way of a drove of horses, which 
Charles Collins, of St. Louis, a nephew of his father, was making 
up in that part of Illinois for the Philadelphia market. When 
the day of starting came young Murray mounted a horse, cross- 
ing this State from St. Louis via Vincennes, and so on to Colum- 
bus, Ohio. It being in February, the roads were horrible, and 
the exercise in chasing the horses over the wild prairies, as they 
sometimes broke and scampered off in every direction, was rather 
severe. He recovered from the ague and arrived in safety at Co- 
lumbus. Here he again worked for his brother-in-law for a short 
time, and afterwards became foreman of the Western Hemisphere 
printing office, the Democratic organ of the State, and published 
by Belcher & Gilbert. The former had served a short time in the 
penitentiary for having stabbed a political opponent in Chilli- 
cothe, where he was publishing a paper. Young Murray was then 
in his 18th year, and continued in charge of the office until a 
difficulty arose between him and Mr. Belcher. Soon after the pa- 
per fell into the hands of Samuel Medary. It was then changed 
to the Ohio Statesman. Mr. Murray then accepted a situation in 
the office, and continued there until 183-1. About that time some 
citizen? of Piqua, Ohio, were looking about Columbus for practi- 
cal printers to take charge of a paper in that town, and Mr. Mur- 
ray and a brother-in-law, D. B. Espy, were prevailed upon to un- 
dertake the enterprise. They commenced the publication of a 
paper called the Piqua Courier., upon an old wooden press that 
had been brought from Philadelphia at a very early period. C. 
L. Murray was editor. The citizens soon assisted in purchasing 
a new press at Cincinnati. The Courier was the first paper in the 
State which run up the name of General Harrison in 1835. It was 
done at the instance of Col. John Johnson, an old soldier under 
Harrison, and who was a citizen of the county of Miami. In 
1836 he bought out the interest of his brother-in-law. He mar- 
ried a Kentucky lady, who was attending boarding school, by the 
name of Ann Maria Spriggs, in July of the same year. Shortly 
after his marriage J. D. Defrees and James Barns were deputed 
by the citizens of Goshen to engage some one to bring a printing 
office to Goshen, and for that purpose they had raised six or seven 
hundred dollars. They made application to Mr. Murray at Piqua, 
who accepted the offer, sold out the Courier to Mr. Barrington> 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 57 

one of the former proprietors of the office, set off to Cincinnati 
with Anthony Defrees, and purchased new materials out and out 
for a first-class country paper. He shipped the establishment to 
Dayton by the canal, and the balance of tlie way it was trans- 
ported in wagons to Goshen, via Fort Wayne. The first number 
of the Goshen Express^ C. L. Murray as editor, was issued in 
Fcbruitry, 1836. Anthony Defrees soon got tired of the busi- 
ness and sold his interest in the establishment to Mr. Murray, 
who was connected with the paper as its editor, at intervals, and 
under different names until 1810. During this period he had 
been put in nomination for County Auditor by the Whig party, 
against Dr. E. W. H. Ellis, and beaten, the Democracy having a 
large majority in Elkhart county. Mr. Murray was appointed 
Postmaster at Goshen under Gen. Harrison, in 1840. He sold 
out the printing establishment shortly after. He was removed 
from office during the administration of John Tyler. Having 
purchased some land in the county Mr. Murray turned his at- 
tention to agricultural pursuits; the winters either being devoted 
to working at his trade at different points, or in reporting the 
proceedings of the Senate for the Indiana ^•itate Journal. In 
184G, under an engagement with the proprietors of Monoquet, 
Kosciusko county, he printed a paper in that town for one year, 
the first paper ever published in the county. It was called the 
Hepiihlican. From there he removed to Indianapolis and became 
assistant editor of the Indiana State Journal^ under the proprie- 
torship of John D. Defrees. In the fall of the following year he 
returned to his farm in Elkhart county, where his family lias re- 
sided ever since. During the winter seasoil Mr. Murray was still 
in the habit of coming to Indianapolis to report in the Senate. 
He served seven sessions in that capacity. In 1859 he was nomi- 
nated and elected a member of the House of Representatives by 
the Republican party of Elkhart and Lagrange counties, joint- 
ly, by upwards of 900 majority. He served his constituents ac- 
ceptably through both the extra and regular sessions, having taken 
an active part in all important subjects under consideration. In 
18C0 he was nominated as a candidate for the Senate by a ma- 
jority of 42 over formidable competitors, and triumphantly elected 
by over 1,200 majority. It will be seen by this sketch that Mr. 
Murray has been engaged in active political life from his youth up. 



58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



He has lind the advantage of the acquaintance of nearly all the 
public men of Ohio and Indiana. He is a self-made man, never 
having attended school a day since he was eleven years of age, 
and inured by actual experience and manly struggles to a pioneer 
life. Mr. Murray assisted in the organization of the first agri- 
cultural society in his county, and for the period of ten years has 
been its Secretary. His family consists of a wife and eight 
children — four boys and four girls. It is his intention to retire 
entirely from public life at the close of his Senatorial term. An 
active and laborious career in the West as an agriculturalist, and 
pioneer editor and printer, has peculiarly fitted Mr. M. for the 
position he now occupies, or any other that it may be his good 
fortune to fill in the future. Those vfho read his biography will 
agree that his labors in the capacity of farmer, printer, editor and 
Senator, have established for him a eulogy superior to any that 
could be written. Post office address — Goshen, Indiana. 



JOHN C. SHOEMAKER, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUx\TIES OF PERRY, SPENCER AND WARRICK, 

Mr. Shoemaker was born in Perry county, Indiana, April 
8th, 1826, and has resided there until the present time. His 
father, John Shoemaker, located in that county in 1812, before the 
admission of Indiana into the Union, and commenced clearing 
up a fiirm in Tobin township, in that county. Mr. Shoemaker, 
jr., was brought up to the occupation of farming. The basis of 
his education was the rudiments taught in the common schools. 
His natural inclination for reading and study, subsequently stored 
his mind with useful information, and gave a practical turn to 
what he learned at school. Thus, by his own elForts he has ac- 
quired an education far above mediocrity, and rendering him fully 
equal to the discharge of the duties of Senator, or those of any other 
office within the gift of the people. At the age of nineteen years 
he engaged in school teaching, and continued in that occupation 
eighteen months. His Whig friends about this time nominated 
him for the office of County Treasurer. He was barely twenty- 
one years of age, but was elected by a majority of fifty votes 
His opponent was Mr. Israel Stephenson, an independent Whig 



BOQRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 59 

candidate. Under the old constitution he held this olEce three 
years, and in 1850 was re-elected without any party opposition. 
His opposing candidate in this canvass was Mr. Isaac W. White- 
head, a prominent and leading Democrat, who has since served as 
treasurer two consecutive terms. In 1852 Ex-Governor Joseph 
A. Wright carried the county by 152 majority, and in the year 
following, Mr. S.'s term as treasurer having expired, he was elected 
County Auditor by the Whig party, over Dr. Wm. P. Drumb, the 
present County Clerk, running about 500 votes ahead of his ticket. 
On the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the disorganization 
of the Whig party, and the advent of Know Nothingism, Mr. S. 
espoused the cause of Democracy, and in the year following the 
expiration of his term as county Auditor, he was nominated by 
the Democratic party of his district, for Senator, and ran against 
David T. Laird, at that time one of the most influential Ameri- 
cans in the State, a Filmore Elector in 1856, since become a Dem- 
ocrat, and in the late canvass was a candidate for Representative 
on the Democratic ticket, against James C. Veatch, one of the 
ablest men in this General Assembly. Mr. S. was elected by 464 
majority. Being elected for four years, hels now in the Senate the 
second term. He was married in October, 1851, to Miss Mahala 
Stephenson, of Perry county. Mr, S. has a reputation in the Sen- 
ate that reflects credit upon his character. He is active and in- 
dustrious, and shrinks from no duty, however arduous, in caring 
for the interests of the State. Without making any great preten- 
sions to eloquence or rare legislative abilities, he is an efiicient 
and capable Senator, taking practical views of all matters coming 
before the body of which he is a member, and his votes indicate 
the correctness of his views on State policy. At home he enjoys 
the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens to the fullest ex- 
tent, and is recognized by his neighbors as a man possessing all 
the characteristics of a gentleman. His upright conduct and 
goodness of heart have endeared him to those who enjoy his ac- 
quaintance, and no man in his district is more deservedly popular. 
Post office address — Rome, Perry county, Indiana. 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

MICHAEL D. WHITE, 

SENATOR FROM >IONTGOMERT COUNTY. 

Mr. "White was born in Clark county, Ohio, September 8tb, 
1827, and when about two years of age, his father, Alanson 
"White, moved to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where Mr. White, 
jr., resided about 19 years, and then enrolled his name as a stu- 
dent in the county Seminary at Crawfordsville. After attending 
this Seminary about one year, he entered the Wabash College, at 
that place, where he remained three years, taking a partial course. 
During the three years that he attended college, his circumstances 
were such as to compel him, during vacation, to turn his atten- 
tion to school teaching, working upon the farm and railroad, and 
in fact anything that promised him the means to complete his ed- 
ucation and fit him for that position in life — the practice of the 
law — which he designed choosing. At the expiration of his three 
years term in college he took an interest in a dry goods store, 
with his uncle, Daniel Dougherty, in which business he contin- 
ued about one year, and then commenced the study of law in the 
ofl&ce of Hon. Lewis Wallace, the gentleman who preceded him 
in the State Senate. He was licensed to practice by Judge Dough- 
erty, at the April term of the Montgomery Common Pleas, 185-4; 
in August of the same year he formed a law partnership with 
D. C. Stover, now Agent of State. In October, 1854, he was 
elected as Prosecuting Attorney for his Common Pleas District. 
About which time Mr. Stover removed from Crawfordsville, which 
dissolved the partnership; Mr. White then, until January, 1855, 
practiced by himself, when the gentleman under whom he had 
studied tendered him a partnership, on advantageous terms, which 
he accepted. This partnership continued until August, 1859. — 
Politically Mr. "White is of AVhig antecedents, but now a conserv- 
ative Union Republican. In June of 18G0, without any solicita- 
tion on his part, he was put in nomination for State Senator, in 
opposition to Col. M. D. Manson, a prominent and influential 
Democrat of that county, over whom he was elected by a majority 
of 137. In the law he succeeded at once in securing a good prac- 
tice, which ho has increased, and succeeded, in being retained 
on one side of all important cases in his county. He was eu- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 61 

gaged on the part of the State in the celebrated Owen case, in 
1859. His colleagues in this case were Messrs. "Wallace and 
Gregory. The opposing counsel were Gen. Joseph E. McDon- 
ald, Hon. Daniel W. Voorhees, Hon. James Wilson, and Col. 
Samuel C. "Wilson — Mr. "White making the opening speech, which 
public accounts report to have been one of the ablest arguments 
ever made in the State, and which Gen. McDonald pronounced as 
being the best review of testimony to which he had even listened. 
Six attorneys were engaged in this case, each of whom occupied 
one-half day in argument. As a Senator, Mr. "White is modest 
and unassuming, and disposed to be an active, thinking, working 
member, in preference to an acknowledged orator. As an attor- 
ney, he stands well with the profession. Always better on 
the defence than the prosecution, and would rather appeal to sym- 
pathy than to the baser passions. He was married on the 27th 
of April, 1858, to Miss Laura E. McMechan, daughter of James 
G. McMechan, of Montgomery county, Indiana. Post office ad- 
dress — Crawfordsville, Montgomery county, Ind. 



AARO]Sr B. LINE, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTY OF FRANKLIN. 

Mr. Line was born July 6, 1806, in the county of Butler, State 
of Ohio. His paternal and maternal ancestors settled near the 
present county seat of Butler, in 1796. Both of his grand-fathers 
were soldiers in the Revolution, and his paternal grand-father 
was vere conspicuous in what is known as the whisky insurrec- 
tion, in the State of Pennsylvania— he being compelled to keep 
himself concealed for several weeks to elude the excise officers. 
During the war of 1812, his father, with two brothers and two 
brothers-in-law, volunteered under an order from Gov. Meigs, of 
Ohio, under Captain Anderson Spencer, of Hamilton, Ohio, to 
prevent an expected attack of the North Western Indians, and 
was out in the service some considerable time — for which service 
his widow received a land warrant in 1854, for 160 acres of land. 
Mr. Line remained with his fathers' family until he was 20 years 
of age, he then placed himself as an apprentice to the wagon 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

making business, under the direction and control of Mr. Joseph 
Bloouifield, near Springdale, Hamilton county, Ohio. Having 
finished his trade — and there being no very favorable opening to 
commence business, and being offered a very good chance to work 
at the carpenter's trade, he accepted; and as a mechanic has 
worked at the business more or less up to the present time. On 
the 31st of December, 1829, he was married to Miss Jane M. 
Maxwell, of Butler county, Ohio. Working at his trade most of 
the time from this up to 1845, he cut loose from the associations 
and the scenes of his school boy days, and moved to Franklin coun- 
ty, Indiana, where he arrived on the ISth day of March, 1845, 
and where he, in one of those heavy oak forests peculiar to south- 
eastern Indiana — and without a " stick amiss " — commenced 
opening a farm. In the year 1847, he was nominated with his 
colleague, John B. Campbell, by the Democratic party as a can- 
didate foraseatin the lower bi'anch of the General Assembly 
of the State — to which they were both elected. The following 
year they were both nominated and re-elected. At this session 
the Hon. James Whitcomb was elected to the United States Sen- 
ate. This session was somewhat interesting on several accounts 
— among others on the account of the introduction of a set of joint 
resolutions on the subject of the Wilmot Proviso being applied 
to our newly acquired territory from Mexico — introduced by Mr. 
Julian, of Wayne. At this session the school law underwent con- 
siderable change, to which he contributed what ability or influ- 
ence he had. In 1850 he was elected Justice of the Peace, and 
served out his constitutional term — always giving his counsel and 
influence in favor of an amicable adjustment between litigating 
parties. In 1858 he was nominated by the Democi-atic party as 
a candidate for the State Senate. The question of the policy of 
Administration with regard to Kansas, known as Lecompton and 
anti-Lecompton — was sprung upon him during this canvass, and 
the Hon. John T. Cooley was pitted against him, as an anti-Le- 
compton independent Douglas Democrat, Mr. L. taking the En- 
glish Compromise as a finality of that controversy. Mr. Cooley 
was beaten in the race about G70 votes. In the winters of 1858- 
9, an attempt was made by some of the citizens of Indianapolis 
to revive the Indiana Historical Society — which had become nearly 
extinct. Among various schemes proposed to resuscitate this as- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 63 

sociation was one asking a small appropriation from the State 
Legislature. This, owing to the financial embarrassment of the 
State, was looked upon and advocated by some as a hopeless ef- 
fort. Amid this doubt and distrust, Mr. L. came boldly forward 
and appealed to the pride of Indiana, and charged some of them 
with old fogyism — and closed his remarks by moving that a com- 
mittee of three be appointed to memorialize the Legislature, ask- 
ing them for a small sum to aid the Society in so laudable an un- 
dertaking. This resulted in an appropriation of five hundred 
dollars, which was laid out in purchasing documents, papers, man- 
uscripts, &c., calculated to throw light on the earlyhistory of In- 
diana ; and most surely, persons visiting the room at this time, 
in the Bank building in Indianapolis, will feel abundantly com- 
pensated for the very small pittance they have contributed to col- 
lect and to perpetuate incidents of the early history of Indiana. 
Mr. L. has long been one of the Vice Presidents of that associa- 
tion, which position he still (Feb. 8,1861) holds. In politics he 
has always identified himself with the Democratic party — voting 
first in his life for Jackson in 1828, and for every successive Dem- 
ocratic candidate for the Presidency down to 1860. His father's 
family being large, and the opportunities of education very limi- 
ted, he shared but little of its advantages, but we mention it as a 
matter of encouragement to young men thrown upon the world 
with a limited education — that he, after settling in life was often 
known to labor during the day two miles from home — come home, 
" do up his chores," and then go two miles to a night school. By 
tliis means he acquired a tolerable knowledge of Arithmetic, Ge- 
ography and English Grammar. This, with an inordinate thirst 
for reading, and a good stock of books in his library, has enabled 
him to store up a fund of general knowledge, which he seems 
rightly to apply and properly appreciate. In the Senate cham- 
ber he stands pre-eminent as a ready and able debater and an ef- 
ficient, working member. He is unassuming in his manners, and 
observes a degree of aifabilit}' and courtesy in his intercourse with 
his fellow mem.bers, that proclaims him a gentleman both by na- 
ture and inclination. 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

BENJAMIN L. ROBINSON, 

SENATOR FROM THE COUNTIES OF OHIO AND SWITZERLAND. 

Mr. Robinson is the son of Jonathan Robinson, and was born 
in Hamilton county, Ohio, July 33d, 1817. When about two years 
of age his father removed to Switzerland county, Indiana, and set- 
tled on a farm in what is now Posey township. Benjamin L. re- 
mained on this farm with his fathei', engaged in the various la- 
bors of farm life until 21 years of age. His education was ob- 
tained at common schools, the advantages of which were then 
limited. At 23 years of age he was married to Miss Elizabeth, 
daughter of William Campbell, of that county, and a member of 
the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850. In agricultural 
pursuits, in connection with an occasional trading trip on the 
Ohio river, and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans, he 
engaged, until within about four years, when he turned his atten- 
tion to milling, (flouring and lumber) in which he still continues. 
Politically, Mr. Robinson was a Democrat until the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise line in 1854, when he abandoned that or- 
ganization, and became a member of the Republican party, and 
has since that time been a zealous and active, though not an as- 
piring member. In 1858 he was put in nomination for State 
Senator by the Republicans of his District, in opposition to David 
Henry, a farmer of Pleasant township, Switzerland county, a gen- 
tleman and Democrat of prominence and influence, over whom he 
was elected by a majority of 34. It is due Mr. Robinson to state 
here that the party which nominated him was not strictly Repub- 
lican — but composed of Democrats, Republicans and Americans, 
who, having become disgusted with misrule and corruption, unan- 
imously supported him, and when there was a Democratic major- 
ity of over 200 in the District, Mr. R. was elected by 34 majority; 
an evidence of the confidence reposed in his honesty and integ- 
rity by his friends and neighbors. W^hat eulogy more eloquent 
— what fact could speak more plainly the moral and political 
worth of the man, than that he was selcj.eJ by members of all the 
political parties in his county, as the one most fit to clothe in the 
honored mantle of a Senator ? Nobly has he sustained himself 
in that position, and never will his constituents regret having 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 65 

conferred upon him a seat among the law-makers of Indiana. — 
Serving in the special and regular sessions of 1858-9, he is now 
in the last session of the term for which he was elected. As a 
Senator and public servant, he has met the expectations of his 
friends, and by his courtesy and aifability of manner, has added 
many warm political and personal admirers to his large circle of 
acqaintance. Post office address — Florence, Switzerland coun- 
ty, Ind. 



JONATHAN S. HARVEY, 

TREASURER OF STATE. 



Mr. Haryey was born in Wayne county, Indiana, January 
16th, 1817, and is now 44 years of age. His father, Robert Har- 
vey, was a farmer, in which occupation Jonathan S. was engaged 
until his 19th year. At that age he was married to Miss Martha 
E., daughter of Jonathan Line, Esq., of Wayne county, in May, 
1836, and removed to Laporte county, Indiana, at which place he 
turned his attention to the study of law, to aid him in which, he 
engaged in teaching school. In 1837 he was admitted to prac- 
tice, and remoTcd to Plymouth, Marshall county, Ind., and opened 
an office for the practice of his profession. Here he met with 
success, considering the small amount of litigation then had in 
that part of the State. He remained at Plymouth until August, 
1843, when he removed to Danville, Hendricks county, and con- 
tinued in the practice of law with a success that more than met 
his anticipations. In the years 1845-6-7 he was successively 
elected to the House of Representatives of Indiana, on the old 
Whig ticket; and in 1848 he was elected to the Senate from the 
same county, which position he held for three years, for which 
length of time Senators were chosen under the old Constitution. 
In the year 1852, he removed to Indianapolis, and entered upon 
the practice of the law, remaining in this city until 1858, at 
which time he was elected President of the Branch at Jefferson- 
ville, of the Bank of the State of Indiana, and removed to that 
city. On the 22d of February, 1860, at the Republican State 
Convention, held at Indianapolis, he was put in nomination for 
5 



66 " BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

State Treasurer, and elected, in opposition to Nathaniel F. Cun- 
ningham, Esq., one of the most popular Democrats in the State. 
Being raised a Whig, Mr. Harvey acted with that party as long 
as it had an existence, and on the organization of the Republican 
party, attached himself to that organization, and became a zeal- 
ous and working member. He was a delegate from the Indiana- 
polis Congressional District to the Philadelphia National Con- 
vention in 185G, at which Col. John C. Fremont was nominated 
for the Presidency. Returning home, he entered into the cam- 
paign with vigor; and at the session of the General Assembly in 
1857, was elected Principal Secretary of the Senate. On the stump 
he is recognized as a good orator, and a close and logical reasoner. 
As a lawyer, he is well read, an'd has but few superiors in point 
of talent in the State, and as a citizen, he has ever enjoyed the 
confidence, respect and esteem of his fellow citizens wherever he 
has resided. Politically he is honest and candid in his views and 
is actuated by a love of principle above all other considerations. 
When a Representative in the State Legislature, he always stood 
high, and was ever watchful of the interests of his constituents; 
and as Treasurer of State, his course is marked with the same de- 
gree of honest consistency and integrity that has rendered him 
so popular with the people of Indiana. His education was prin- 
cipally obtained by his own exertions, but his industry, persever- 
ance and ambition have made him a scholar of no mean attain- 
ments, and placed him in the highway to honor and distinction. 
Mr. Harvey's entire record as a public man is one that does him 
honor both as a citizen and statesman. He does not belong to 
that class who have obtained place and distinction through the 
influence of family or wealth, rather than merit. His fitness and 
qualifications for public position, blending with an untarnished 
reputation, have recommended him to the people of Indiana as a 
gentleman to whom they could entrust with entire safety the in- 
terests of the State in the honorable and responsible position he 
now occupies. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 67 

ALLEN HAMILTON, 

SENATOR FROM ALLEN COUNTY. 

Mr. Hamilton was born in the year 1798, in the county of 
Tyrone, Ireland. His ancestors emigrated from Scotland, and 
their descendent unites in his disposition and character of some of 
the most striking qualities of both nations — the warm-hearted- 
ness of the Irish, with the energy, perseverance and frugality of 
the Scotch. His father, Andrew Hamilton, was an Irish attor- 
ney of respectable standing, and held for some time the honorable 
and lucrative position of Deputy Clerk for the crown. This posi- 
tion he resigned, and shortly after was prostrated by a severe 
sickness, which impaired not only his physical, but, to the same 
degree, his intellectual energies. In consequence of this it soon 
became apparent that young Hamilton, if he succeeded in the 
world, must do it by his own efforts. His mother was an ex- 
cellent woman, of great strength of character, and on finding that 
the circumstances of her husband would not afford his son proper 
opportunities for an education, she secured him a home with her 
aunt, Mrs. Montgomery, in Donegal county. With this lady he 
remained two years and attended an academy, enjoying cultiva- 
ted and refined society. At the end of this time he returned 
home, and for four years devoted himself to the interests of his 
father. At the age of eighteen he received a glowing account of 
America from a gentleman who had just returned from a tour 
through the United States. From this gentleman he obtained a 
copy of Jefferson's Notes, which he read with avidity; and from 
this time the United States became to him a land of promise. In 
one year, by his own exertions and the aid of some friends, he 
raised money enough to pay his passage and support him for a 
few weeks after his arrival. He landed at Quebec in July, 1817, 
and delivered his letters of introduction (with which he had been 
provided by his aunt, Mrs. Montgomery,) to a Mr. Irwin, of the 
Police Department, by whose kindness he became acquainted with 
some families of distinction, through whose influence he obtained 
the promise of employment as clerk in an extensive shipping 
house. An attack of ship fever prevented him from accepting 
this situation. His illness continued three weeks. On his re- 
covery his physicians assured him that the rigors of a Canadian 



68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

winter wovild be more than he would be able to endure, and he 
accordingly started on a journey to the United States. When he 
reached Montreal he had a relapse, and on his recovery, discov- 
ered that he had but little more money than would pay the ex- 
penses of his sickness. He disposed of most of his clothing, and 
with a few dollars in his pocket, started for the South. He 
walked to St. John's, and passed over to Vermont in an Indian 
canoe. Continuing his journey, he proceeded on foot, through 
Albany and New York, to Philadelphia, the climate of which he 
supposed would be more favorable to him than that of any city 
further north. This journey must have been as disheartening to 
the unfortunate emigrant as can be easily imagined. He had no 
acquaintance in the United States. His constitution, which had 
been excellent before he left Ireland, had given way under 
the attacks of fever at Quebec and Montreal, Ilis natural enthu- 
siasm had yielded to the stern realities of his trials and his suf- 
ferings; yet day after day, he pursued his toilsome journey, sus- 
tained by a firmness of purpose that would not yield to discour- 
agements, and by the hope that fortune would yet smile upon 
him, and open the way for him notonlyto better his own condition 
but to secure a home and a competency for his parents. Having 
reached Philadelphia, and taken the cheapest respectable lodgings 
he could find, he started out in quest of employment. All his 
efi'orts were, for a time, unavailing. Penniless and almost dis- 
heartened — refused employment as a common porter on account 
of his delicate appearance — he wandered through the streets until 
his eye was arrested by an advertisement for laborers on the door 
of an iron store. He immediately entered the store, and presented 
himself before the proprietor, and asked for work. Fortunately for 
Hamilton, the gentleman he addressed was a kind-hearted Qua- 
ker, who was at once interested in the delicate appearance and 
earnest but respectful manner of the young Irishman. He drew 
from him his history, and promised him assistance. Nor was the 
promise forgotten. In a day or two a clerkship, with a salary of 
one hundred dollars a year and board, was obtained for the young 
adventurer, and from that time his lucky star was in the ascend- 
ant. He remained with his employer, at an increased salary after 
the first year, until the spring of 1820, when he determined to 
visit a cousin. General James Dill, who, he understood, resided at 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 69 

* . ■ 

Lawrenceburgli, Indiana. He arrived at Lawrenceburgh in^July; 
found his cousin, cderk of the court for Dearborn county, and en- 
tered his office with a view of preparing himself for the bar, agree- 
ing to write six hours a day for his board and the use of his 
cousin's library. "While at Lawrenceburgh, he was introduced 
to some of the first men of the State, and became intimate at the 
house of Hi n. Jesse L. Holman, one of the Judges of the Su- 
preme Court, and afterwards Judge of the United States Court for 
the District of Indiana; one of whose daughters. Miss Emiline 
J., a young lady of rdre virtue and accomplishments, he after- 
wards married. In the year 1823, Captain Samuel C. Vance, 
who had been an officer under the gallant but unfortunate Gen_ 
St. Clair, was appointed Register of the Land Office, at Fort 
'Wayne, in the heart of an unbroken wilderness. At his instance 
Hamilton was induced to visit this frontier post. The situation 
of Fort VVaj'ne, at the junction of two beautiful rivers, the St. 
Mary's and St, Joseph's, at the head of the great Wabash val- 
ley, pleased and interested him. He perceived also its great local 
advantages, and, shortly after his arrival, he determined to make 
it his place of permanent residence. As soon as this resolution was 
formed, he entered the office of Captain Vance as deputy register, 
and pursued for some time his legal studies, v/ith a view of being 
admitted to the bar as soon as the naturalization laws of the coun- 
ti"y would permit. It shortly, however, became obvious to him 
that the practice of the law, in so new a country as the one in 
which he had located, would not be profitable enough to enable 
him to carry into efi'ect his long-cherished plan of removing his 
parents to the United States, and he determined to turn his atten- 
tion to merchandising, the only business that seemed to promise 
safety in investment, and speedy and profitable returns. His good 
character enabled him to purchase a small stock of goods on credit, 
and the year after his arrival at Ft. Wayne he commenced a small 
trade, chiefly with the Indians. His success altogether exceeded 
his expectations, and in the course of a year or two he found him- 
self with capital and credit enough to carry on an extensive and 
profitable business. It was the good fortune of Mr. Hamilton to 
be connected, in his mercantile and real estate operations, with 
Cyrus Taber, Esq., now and for many years past a resident of 
Logansport, one of the most enterprising and indefatigable men 



70 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ift 

of the State. The conneotioa was formed soon after Mr. Hamilton 
settled at Fort Wayne, and continued for many years. The firm 
of Hamilton & Taber became widely known, and none in the 
State has ever enjoyed a higher or more merited credit. Mr. Ham- 
ilton was also fortunate in securing at an early day the confidence 
of John B. Richardville, for many years the principal chief of the 
Miami. Indians. This chief was one of the most remarkable men 
which his nation, prolific as it has been of marked characters, ever 
produced. Clear-headed, cautious, prudent, non-commital, al- 
ways adroitly obtaining the opinions of others before he made 
known his own, no advantage could be obtained over him in his 
negotiations with the government, and no trader could obtain the 
good will of the nation contrary to his wishes. For some time 
after Hamilton settled in Fort Wayne, the chief marked his course 
with his usual caution and discrimination, and, being pleased with 
the manly character, steady habits, and honorable bearing of the 
young stranger, he solicited his friendship, and gradually gave 
him his confidence. For many years before his death he took no 
important step in relation to his own affairs or those of the nation 
without consulting^ his friend. The friendship of the chief se- 
cured for Hamilton, to a large degree, the confidence of the na- 
tion ; and while this confidence resulted in solid advantages to 
him, it was never abused. After the death of Puchardville, and 
before the nation was removed to their present home, west of the 
Mississippi, he continued to be the steadfast friend of the tribe, 
and exerted in their counsels a greater influence than was proba- 
bly ever possessed by any one who was not of their blood. Tn 
1829, the year after his marriage, Mr. Hamilton sent to Ireland, 
for his next younger brother; and in 1831, he prepared to carry 
into execution his long-cherished determination of removing his 
parents and other brothers and sister to the United States. Be- 
fore this could be eff"ected, however, his mother died, and he was 
thus denied the happiness of welcoming her to the home he had 
labored so hard to secure for her in his adopted country. The 
rest of the family accepted his invitation, and he had, soon after, 
the satisfaction of greeting them under his own roof, and making 
suitable provision for their comfort and happiness in their new 
home. Nor is it a business man, and in pecuniary matters alone, 
that Mr. Hamilton has been successful ; — he has received a lib- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 71 



sliare of public honors. In 182-4, he was appointed sheriff to or- 
ganize the county of Allen, which office he subsequently held two 
years, by election of the people. In 1830, he was elected county 
clerk, which office he held for seven years. In 1834, he was elect- 
ed to be secretary of the commissiohers appointed to negotiate a 
treaty with the Miamies. In 1838, the same office was again ten- 
dered to him and accepted. In the spring of 1840, under the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Van Buren, the government being desirous 
of extinguishing the title of the Miamies to their lands in In- 
diana, and inducing them to remove to the West, appointed Mr. 
Hamilton, though a political opponent of the administration, one 
of the commissioners to treat with them upon these important 
matters. A treaty was effected in accordance with the wishes of 
the government, by which the Indians sold their remaining lands 
in Indiana, and agreed to remove to the home that had been se- 
cured to them west of the Mississippi, within a period of five years. 
These three last and important treaties could not, it is probable, 
have been effected without the co-operation of Mr. Hamilton. — 
Such was the confidence reposed in him by the chief and his 
council, that no treaty could have been made contrary to his wishes 
and advice. He advised the Indians to sell their lands in In- 
diana and remove, because he had been long satisfied that their 
preservation, as a race, depended upon their being withdrawn 
from the corrupting influences that surrounded them where they 
were. In 1811, Mr. Hamilton was appointed, under the admin- 
istration of Gen. Harrison, agent of the Miamies, which office he 
held until the election of Mr. Polk, when he resigned. During 
this period he disbursed between $300,000 and $400,000, and 
discharged the responsible duties of the agency, to the satisfac- 
tion of the government and the Indians. As agent., although not 
clothed with any judicial power, it became necessary for him to 
decide upon the merits of claims which were presented against 
the tribe for payment on the receipt of their regular annuities. — 
His conduct, therefore, was watched with the utmost keenness 
and jealousy, and it is the highest compliment to Mr. Hamilton, 
that during his guardianship of the Miamies, no charge was ever 
brought against him implicating his honor or integrity. The In- 
dians confided in him as a friend and protector, while the traders 
were forced to respect an integrity that could not be seduced, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



even while it stood in the way of their interests. In 1850, Mr. 
Hamilton was elected delegate for the county of Allen, to the 
convention for the revision of the constitution of Indiana. The 
county was largely Democratic, and his competitor, a Democrat 
of large acquaintance and skillful address. The election of Mr. 
Hamilton, under such circumstances, by a handsome majority, is 
evidence of the estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citi- 
zens. In the convention, he was appointed chairman of the com- 
mittee on currency and banking, being among the most interest- 
ing and exciting subjects that demanded the consideration and ac- 
tion of that body. Being himself favorable to a continuance of 
the present state bank system, but at the same time, not opposed 
to a well-regulated system of free banking, that should give en- 
tire security to the bill-holder, he necessarily came in conflict not 
only with those who were opposed to all banks, but also with those 
who were so wedded to a particular theory, as to be unable to see 
merit in any other. The result of the deliberations of the con- 
vention upon these subjects was the adoption of a provision au- 
thorizing the establishment of free banks, in imitation of the 
New York system, and also of one granting to the legislature the 
power of incorporating a state bank and branches. The author- 
ity was therefore left to the people to adopt either system, or both, 
as the wants and experience of the future should direct. The 
adoption of these compromise provisions was as much owing 
to the course and influence of Mr. Hamilton as that of any other 
member of the convention. Under the new constitution a free 
banking law has already been enacted. The wisdom of the con- 
vention, in the disposition it made of this subject, is generally 
acknowledged. The aim of Mr. Hamilton in the convention was 
to be useful, and although he was not classed among the eloquent 
men of that body, there were few who brought to bear upon the 
subjects that came up for consideration clearer views or safer 
judgment. He believed that the organic law of a state, while 
conservative in its character, should throw no obstacle in the way 
of progress in the right direction. While he opposed the radi- 
calism that would entirely disregard the experience of the past, 
he would not hesitate to adopt a principle which appeared to his 
mind practicable, and in accordance with the spirit of the age, 
merely because it had not received the sanction of previous law- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 73 

makers. His views, and those of kindred minds, prevailed in the 
convention, and the new constitution of Indiana, while it violates 
no law and fully protects the person and property of the citizen, 
presents no harrier to the most searching and comprehensive re- 
forms. Jlr. Plamilton is in the enjoyment of an ample fortune. 
The little trading post, Fort Wayne, has become one of the most 
interesting and important towns in the state, and the wilderness 
whicli, a few years since surrounded it has become the home of a 
large and enterprising population. His mercantile operations 
were entirely successful, and his investments in real estate have 
more than realized his anticipations. His present position is an 
agreeable contrast with his prospects when he wandered through 
the streets of Philadelphia, seeking employment as a common la* 
borer. For some years he has been engaged in no regular busi- 
ness. He holds, and has held since its organization, when other 
offices and engagements did not present, the presidency of the 
Branch Bank at Fort Wayne. The duties of this position have 
not occupied much of his time, and he has enjoyed for many years 
the " otiinn cum dignitate" which is the legitimate result of hon- 
est enterprise and successful labors. Mr. H. was a Whig until 
nearly all the members of that party assumed the principles of the 
American organization, then he espoused the cause of Democracy. 
In politics he is conservative, avoiding all" extremes, going with 
his party when in his judgment he thinks it right, and condemn- 
ing his political friends when he thinks they are wrong. In 1858 
he was elected from his county to the Senate, consequently, this 
is his third session. After an eventful and useful career, now, 
in the winter of life, his time is principally occupied in attending 
to his private affairs. He views with feelings of deep interest the 
difficulties of our beloved country. No sacrifice consistent with 
honor, that he would not willingly submit to, if thereby harmony 
could be restored between the different members of our Confede- 
racy, and bring the country once more to its usual prosperity and 
happiness. Post office address — Fort Wayne, Indiana. 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

CORNELIUS O'BRIEN, 

SENATOR FROM DEARBORN COUNTY. 

Mr. O'Brien is a native of Ireland, and emigrated to the Uni- 
ted States in 1835, and in 183G settled in Dearborn county, where 
hehascver since resided. 3Ir. 0'B.,from an earlyage,has been'en- 
tirely dependent upon his own exertions, and is, in the fullest 
sense, the architect of his own fortune. Without friends or in- 
fluence, and almost entirely destitute of means, he has worked 
his way up to honor and distinction. For a number of 3'ears after 
his location at Lawrenceharg he filled the position of Deputy in 
the Clerk's and Treasurer's offices in that county. In 1847 he 
was unanimously nominated by the Democratic party for County 
Treasurer, and was elected by a large majority. Filling this 
office for three years, iu 1^50, before his term as Treasurer had 
expired, he was nominated and elected to fill a vacancy which oc- 
curred in the Clerk's office. In 1852 he was re-nominated and 
re-elected to the same office. In all the positions which Mr. O'B. 
has filled — either as deputy or principal — ^he has made a faithful 
and competent officer — discharging every duty to the fullest sat- 
isfaction of all interested. In 1856 he was chosen by the Democ- 
racy of his Congressional District, (the Fourth) as a Delegate to 
the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati. Returning 
again to his home and his duties, he was, in 1858, put in nomi- 
nation for State Senator for Dearborn county, and elected by a 
majority that spoke the confidence reposed in him by the citizens 
of his county. Serving in the special in regular sessions of 
1858-59 with honor to himself and credit to his constituency, he 
is now in the Senate the last session of the term for which he was 
elected. 

At the Democratic State Convention in January, 1S60, he re- 
ceived the nomination for Clerk of the Supreme Court, which 
nomination was accepted by the party throughout the State with 
the most unqualified approval. His qualifications for the efficient 
discharge of the duties of this office were well known, and his 
election was only defeated by the same causes that resulted in 
the defeat of the Democracy throughout the State, and not from 
personal considerations. As a Senator, Mr. O'Brien has been 
governed by the same consistent, straightforward, honest traits 
that have been his leading characteristics through life, and made 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 75 

him so universally poimlar as a private citizen and public servant. 
During liis services as County Treasurer and Clerk, he fitted him- 
self for the practice of the law, and but few attorneys in the State 
enjoy a finer reputation as a lawyer. Commencing life unaided 
and without friends, he has become an eminently practical man, 
and as such, in whatever position in public life he is placed, he 
is enabled to bring his mind to bear upon all the points involved; 
and this trait alone fits him for a leader rather than a fol- 
lower. Yet his habits and inclinations are such that he is dis- 
posed to listen rather than counsel, but when the time for action 
arrives, he is always prepared to act in the right, as his votes and 
speeches upon all questions involving the public interest so amply 
testify. Post office address — Lawrenceburg, Dearborn county, 
Indiana. 



V/. C. TARKINGTOW. 

SENATOR TROM THE COUNTIES OE MONROE AND BROWN, 

Mr. Tarkington was born June 2d, 1816, in the Indiana Ter- 
ritory, in what is now Knox county. His father permanently 
settled in Monroe county, Indiana, when Mr. T., jr., was very 
young, and there our Senator still resides. The early years of his 
life were spent on a farm, in the labors of which he became ex- 
perimentally conversant. When sixteen years of age he com- 
menced clerking in a store, and remained in the employment of 
the same merchant six years — a fact eloquently proclaiming his 
faithfulness and honesty, and showing that the interests of his 
employer was his first care. Under the new revenue law of 1841, 
creating the office of County Auditor, he became a candidate for 
that office in Monroe county, and was elected over three compet- 
itors by 1,068 more votes than they all received. He was repeat- 
edly re-elected, and held that office until he became a candidate 
for the State Senate in the district composed of Monroe and 
Brown, in 1854. He was elected over a young lawyer, Jesse S. 
Cox, by 1,111 majority. During his first term in the Senate it 
became evident that he possessed legislative abilities of a high 
order, and his entire record was unreservedly indorsed by his con- 



7G BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

stituents. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1858. In 1856 he 
was elected Cashier of the Bloomington Bank, and held that po- 
sition until the Bank suspended in consequence of the deprecia- 
tion of Missouri bonds in December, 1860. He is a Democrat 
confirmed in the faith — not dictatorial in party aifairs, but rather 
cautious, and not hasty in adopting his policy on any given sub- 
ject which involves any considerable degree of interest. He is 
not a partisan in the general acceptation of that term; but when 
he becomes convinced of the correctness of the principles of a pub- 
lic measure, he advocates them with an ability that is acknowl- 
edged by all who know him. He is one of the most efficient 
members of the present Senate, and is so acknowledged by his 
peers in that body. He is a parliamentarian of the first order, 
thoroughly understanding the mazy labyrinths of legislation ; 
and when he once undertakes the advocacy of a bill, he follows it 
through the windings and turnings from Senate to Committee, and 
from Committee to Senate, with an industry that never lags until 
he sees it upon the Statute books of the State — a law. In all the 
positions he has filled, from farm Ijoy up to a place in the Senate 
of the great State of Indiana, he has enjoyed the confidence of 
all with whom he was connected ; and that confidence has been 
well merited — for no man ever discharged official duty more 
promptly, honorably and efficiently. As a citizen his character is 
unblemished by a single dishonorable act and his conduct towards 
others is of that genial and pleasing nature so well calculated to 
secure many friends, and so essential an element in making up 
the popularity of a public man. To friends he is as true and un- 
variable as the needle to the pole, (a virtue which is not universal) 
and though of a forgiving disposition, never fails to fully vindi- 
cate himself against the assaults of an enemy — whether offered ia 
words or actions. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 77 

AQUILA JONES, 

LATE TREASURER OF STATE. 

Mr. Jones was born in Stokes county, Nortli Carolina, July 
8tli, 1811, and emigrated with his father, Benjamin Jones, to Co- 
lumbus, Bartholomew county, Indiana, in 1831, and soon there- 
after entered the store of his brother, Elisha P., at Columbus, as 
a clerk, where he remained until 1838. In that year his brother 
died, and he purchased the stock of goods then on hand and con- 
tinued the business until 1855. On the decease of his brother 
in 1838, for whom he was clerking, and who was Postmaster at 
the time of his death, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, in 
which capacity he served the people of Columbus and vicinity 
until removed by John Tyler, in 1841, who appointed William 
Mounts, whom he subsequently removed and reinstated Mr. Jones, 
who filled the ofiiee until 184:9, and then was removed by the ad- 
ministration of President Taylor. In 1812 Mr. Jones was elected 
to the Legislature of Indiana and served during the winters of 
18-12-3. During this time he continued in business at Columbus. 
In 1^854 he was appointed Agent for the Indians of Washington 
Territory by Mr. Pierce, the then President, which place he de- 
clined. Later in the same year he was appointed to a like posi- 
tion in New Mexico, which appointment he also declined. In 
185G he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention, on 
the 8th of January, for Treasurer of State, and elected by a ma- 
jority of nearly 7,000. In 1858 he was re-nominated for the same 
office, but declined. At the session of 1858, his office of Treasu- 
rer of State having expired, he was nominated by a legislative cau- 
cus for Agent of State, which he also declined. On retiring from 
the office of Treasurer of State he engaged in mercantile pursuits 
in Indianapolis. He was succeeded in that office by Nathaniel 
F. Cunningham. Mr. Jones has been twice married. His first 
wife was Miss Sarah Ann, daughter of Evan Arnold, of Colum- 
bus, Indiana, whom he married August 4th, 1836, and with whom 
he lived but one year and eight months, when she was removed 
by death. On the 4th of March, 1840, he was married to Miss 
Harriet, daughter of Hon. John W. Cox, of Martinsville, Morgan 
county, Indiana. Mr. Jones, in declining these positions of honor 
and profit, tendered him by the people of Indiana and the Presi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



dent of the United States, furnishes a rare instance of what was 
promised upon the advent of Know-Nothingism in 1854 — of the 
' office hunting the man, and not the man hunting the office." 
The instance is rare, because very few gentlemen at this day are 
afflicted with declination of public places, particularly when they 
are proffered by the General Government. Indian Agencies, 
positions which afford a full range to the speculation and cupidity 
of man, are boons which few persons under like circumstances 
would forego. In the positions which Mr. Jones has filled he 
was distinguished as a careful, .prompt and vigilant officer, per- 
forming all the duties thereof at the right time and in a proper 
manner. Few public men in the State possess a greater degree 
of popularity, and none a greater share of the confidence of the 
people. In Bartholomew county, his former place of residence, 
he is personally known to nearly every citizen, and while he made 
that part of the State his home there was no place that the Demo- 
cratic party could confer that was not within his reach, the peo- 
ple well knowing his eminent fitness for public life ; but not be- 
ing afflicted with a craving for the honors and emoluments of 
office, it was seldom he entered the canvass as a candidate. He 
has never professed any other political ftiith than Democracy, and 
no man belonging to that organization is a firmer supporter of its 
principles. In the canvass of 18G0 he advocated the claims of 
Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency. He is a brother of 
Smith Jones, Senator from Bartholomew county in the present 
Legislature. Post office address — Indianapolis, Indiana. 



CYRUS M. ALIjEN, 

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. 

Mr. Allen was born in Clark county, Ky., April 22d, 1817. — 
He remained in that State till the year 1841, and then emigrated 
to Indiana, locating at Petersburg, in Pike county. Here he re- 
mained until March, 1844, engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion, (the law ) In that year he removed to Vincennes, where he 
still resides, enjoying a large practice. Studied law in Kentucky, 
and graduated at the Transylvania Law School, at Lexington, in 
1840. Was married in October, 1838, to Miss Mary Lander, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 79 

daughter of Captain Richard Lander, of Clark county, Ky. His 
wife died in March, 1848. In May, 1856, he married Miss 
Sallie Lander, a sister of his former wife. In 1848-9, he was a 
member of the Indiana Legislature, elected on the Whig ticket, 
in opposition to John B. Irving, Esq., an independent Whig can- 
didate. On the adjournment of the Legislature, he returned to 
his practice, to which he devoted all his time, until 1860, when he 
was nominated by the Republicans, and elected over Israel J. 
Beck. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention 
at Chicago, in 1860, and was on the Electoral ticket for the First 
District. He was elected Speaker, in opposition to Hon. H. Hef- \ 
fren. His father, Thomas Allen, was a farmer, and during his 
youth, our Speaker was thoroughly instructed in all the myste- 
ries of that occupation. Though a man of superior talent, and 
wielding much political influence, he carries his points as much 
by his pleasing address and affability, as by the powers of mind. 
In his profession he is known as a well read and successful law- 
yer, preparing his cases with much care, and vindicating the in- 
terests of his clients with a degree of eloquence and force that sel- 
dom fails to crown his legal efforts with success. As Speaker of 
the House he appears to be in his most congenial element, and 
presides over that body with a grace and dignity peculiarly his 
own. A good parliamentarian, he is never at a loss how to act, 
and gives as little cause for offense to the members as any gen- 
tleman who has preceded him in that honorable position. His 
ready and easy manner of deciding points of order, together with 
his genial good nature, has rendered him extremely popular as a 
presiding officer, and gained him the friendship of every member 
of the House. Post office address — Vincennes, -Indiana. 



J!«"OAH ANDERSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM ELKHART COUNTY. 

Mr. Anderson was born in the State of Delaware, September 
2lst, 1810, and in 1812 his parents emigrated to Warren county, 
Ohio. Here they remained sixteen years, engaged in farming. 
At this time, and when Mr. Anderson, jr., was eighteen years of 



80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

age, liis parents removed to Montgomery county, Ohio, where 
he remained until lie was 24 years of age. He then settled in 
Elkhart county, Indiana. When a boy, in addition to the labor 
he performed on the farm with his father, he served a regular ap- 
prenticeship to, and learned the trade of a carpenter. "When 21 
years of age he married Miss Mary Ann Hay, of Montgomery 
county, Ohio. After marriage, in selecting a home in Elkhart 
county, he settled in Waterford, and followed his trade industri- 
ously for twenty years. At the end of this long period of unre- 
mitting toil, he removed to Harrison township, settled on a farm 
and engaged in tilling the soil, which pursuit he still follows. 
His education, or rather the germ from which his education re- 
sulted, was what he learned in a country school house, where noise 
and confusion were more prevalent than knowledge, and the cracks 
in the walls more apparent than discipline. In after years, by 
close reading and study of the higher branches of an English 
education, he made himself a good scholar, and stored his mind 
with a fund of useful information that proclaims him in any so- 
ciety a man of refinement and intelligence. This is his first term 
in any legislative body He has served in several county and 
township offices to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and 
with honor to himself. At home he is extremely popular as a 
public man, and esteemed in an unusual degree as a citizen. He 
is a Republican in politics — devotedly attached to those princi- 
ples, and works for their success with an industry that makes evi- 
dent his political rectitude. Previous to the organization of the 
Kepublican party he was an active member of the Whig party. 
In June, 18G0, Mr. Anderson was put in nomination by a con- 
vention of Republicans for the office of Representative, to which 
office he was elected by a majority of 359 votes. His competitor 
was Albert Heath, a prominent and influential Democrat, and at 
one time connected with the Goshen Democrat as editor. Mr. A. 
fully meets the expectations of his friends ,, as a Representative ; 
and by industry in dispatching the business of the House, and by 
his gentlemany deportment in that body, has won the respect and 
confidence of its members. Post office address — Goshen, Elk- 
hart county, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 81 

GEORGE YANTIS ATKISON, 

JOINT REPRESENTATIVE FROM HANCOCK AND SHELBY COUNTIES. 

Mr. Atkison was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, January 
20th, 1817. When he was quite young, his parents emigrated to 
Switzerland county, Ind. In 1822 they moved to Decatur county, 
Indiana, and in 1823 they returned to Kentucky, and settled in 
Madison county; and in 1825 returned to Decatur county, Indiana. 
In 183i they moved to Hancock county, Indiana, where Mr. Geo. 
Y. Atkison now resides. His educational advantages were such 
only as were aiFordcd by the common schools of our State in the 
time of his boyhood. His time up to 1856 was exclusively de- 
voted to farming and stock raising and trading in the same. In 
the fall of 1856 he commenced the practice of the law in connec- 
tion with farming, in which he still continues. Politically he 
is a Douglas Democrat. In 1848 he was chosen a Justice of the 
Peace for his township, in which capacity he served four years. 
In the fall of 1856 he was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court, 
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of James Rutherford, 
Esq. On the 6th of June, 1860, he was put in nomination for 
Joint Representative for the counties of Hancock and Shelby 
and was elected by a majority of 336 over George Walker, an in- 
fluential and prominent Republican of Hancock county. He was 
married November 15th, 1838 to Miss Naomi, daughter of Josiah 
Vanmeter, of Hancock county. With this lady he lived until 
September. 1859, when, by mutual agreement, they separated, and 
he obtained a bill of divorce at the Circuit Court of his county, 
February term, 18C0. In youth Mi*. A. well improved all his 
leisure hours in reading and study, and in this way succeeded in 
compensating himself, in a great measure, for the meagre facili- 
ties afforded him at school ; and now, if he does not possess a 
classical education, his mind is well stored with practical and gen- 
eral information, that fully qualifies him for an intelligent and 
efficient discharge of the duties devolving upon him as Repi-e- 
sentative. As a lawyer his attainments are respectable, and though 
not making much pretension in the line of his profession, his le- 
gal learning is thorough, and proclaims him a close student of 
the elementary authorities. As a citizen he stands well at home, 
enjoying the confidence of his neighbors, the esteem of his con- 
6 



\ 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

stituents, and the respect of his politleal opponents. He is a 
member of the Committee on Claims, and also of that on Tem- 
perance, for the Forty-first General Assembly. Post office ad- 
dress — Greenfield, Hancock county, Indiana. 



LUCIUS BINGHAM,^ 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JENNINGS COUNTY. 

Mr. Bingham, son of Erastus and Lydia Bingham, was born 
in Windham, Connecticut, July 7th, 1825. He came to Ohio in 
1832, and removed from that State to Newport, Kentucky, in 1840. 
In 1845 he graduated at the Cincinnati College, and delivered the 
Valedictory Address. The same year he came to Indiana, read 
law with lion. James H. Cravens, and was admitted to the Bar in 
1847. In 1848 he located at Vernon, Indiana, commenced the 
practice of the law, and now has as much business confided to his 
care as any lawyer in Southern Indiana. This is his first term in 
the Legislature. In the canvass he had two opponents: John 
Keller, (Democratic,) and Wallace Wilson, (Republican.) His 
majority was 675. Mr. Bingham is Chairman of the Committee 
on Organization of Courts, member of the Judiciary Committee, 
of the Committee for investigating the frauds alleged to have been 
committed in the location and contracting for the building of 
the Northern Prison; of the investigating committee to examine 
into the sales of the lands of the Wabash and Erie Canal by the 
Trustees ; the last named of which sits during vacation. He is 
also Chairman of the special Committee on Dueling, (in reference 
to the Hefi"ren and Moody affair.) Mr. B. is one of the ablest and 
most successful lawyers in the Third District, and is so acknowl- 
edged by the Bar and the people. As a Representative he is en- 
ergetic in an unusual degree, spends no time in making useless 
speeches, and applies himself to the business of legislation with 
an industry exceeded by no member of the House. His agreea- 
ble manners and gentlemanly deportment render him a popular 
man, whether at home, in the courts of justice, or in the legisla- 
tive halls of the State. As a public speaker he enjoys a fine repu- 
tation; in forensic discussion he is precise, forcible, and wastes 
neither time nor language in presenting and defending his case; 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 83 



and on the stump, when politics is the theme, he advocates the 
principles of his party with a truthful eloquence that is irresisti- 
ble, and the Republican party can boast of but few members 
who have worked with so much zeal and energy for the advance, 
ment of its principles. He never makes an assertion that can be 
gainsayed, and defends his positions with a masterly ability that 
is always acknowledged by his audiences. Post oSice address — 
Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana. 



A. M. BLACK, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM ORANGE COUNTY. 

Mr. Black was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, April 28th 
1821. He is a Representative now for the first time, but has thus 
early in his legislative career given ample evidence that his tal- 
ents eminently qualify him for the proper discharge of the duties 
of his position. As a careful, diligent guardian of the public 
interests of the State he has few, if any superiors. He was elected 
Clerk of the Orange Circuit Court in 1851, and in that capacity 
acquitted himself so well that he was re-elected to the same office 
in October, 1855. In the first contest Mr. Joseph Hollowell was 
his opposing candidate, and in the second Mr. Jonathan Payne. 
During both terms Mr. B. was noted in his county for the prompt 
and efficient dispatch of business. In this respect his conduct 
received the indorsement of every man having busines m the 
courts of Orange county, and what is very rare, the lawyers 
found no fault with him. In the canvass for legislative honors 
in 1860, Dr. T. P. Carter was his opponent. By profession he is 
a banker, and as such, no doubt, understands the mysterious in. 
fluence of the " almighty dollar." Many persons have learned 
that much of financial operations without being favored with a 
glimpse into the interior of a bank vault. In politics he is a 
sound and conservative Democrat, and never was known to flinch 
from duty when the interests of his party were in jeopardy. His 
education is excellent, having graduated with distinction at the 
Indiana Asbury University. Mr. B.was married to Miss Amanda 
McPheeters, of Salem, Indiana, September 21st, 1847. Pos 
office address — Paoli, Orange county, Indiana. 



84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

T. G. BOYDSTOlSr, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM KOSCIUSKO COUNTY. 

Mr. BoYDSTON was born in the State of Pennsylvania" in 1807, 
He emigrated with his father to the State of Ohio in 1810, and 
settled in Wayne county. For thirty-two years he lived in the 
vicinity of Wooster, Ohio. In 1842 he settled in Kosciusko 
county, Indiana, and in 1850 he was severely attacked with the 
gold fever, and crossing the Plains to California, toiled incessantly 
for three and a half years in search of a competency for old age. 
Since his return from the mines he has lived at the old home 
stead, in Tippecanoe township, Kosciusko county. In the can- 
vass of 1860 Mr. B. labored unceasingly for the success of the 
Republican ticket. His competitor was Edward Thomas Miller 
over whom he was elected by 675 majority. Mr. Boydston, al- 
though not a professional politician, is an active, working mem- 
ber of his party, and shrinks from no labor, however arduous, 
when the interests of Republicanism are at stake. As a leg- 
islator he is industrious, honest, and prudent, and highly con- 
servative in all his views on State policy. He is unassuming ia 
his manners, and courteous to all with whom he is brought in 
contact. He is an ardent admirer of the Union and Constitution 
as they are, but would make any reasonable concessions for the 
sake of restoring peace and harmony to the country. 



DAVID C. BRANHAM, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JEFFERSON COUNTY. 

Mr. Branham was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, August 
12th, 1812. His father, Lynsed Branham, was a farmer, who had 
located on the farm on which David C. now resides in the year 
1810, while Indiana was yet a Territory, and six years previous 
to her admission as a State. He was brought up on a farm, and 
devoted his summers to following the plow and clearing land, 
while his winters were occupied in the labors, pursuits and amuse- 
ments common to pioneer life. In the days of his boyhood com- 
mon schools were scarce, and hence his educational advantages 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 85 



were limited, never having received to exceed four months school- 
ing in his life ; but being of studious habits he suffered no oppor- 
tunity to pass that would tend to the improvement of his mind. 
Attaining his majority he commenced the business of millinc} 
(flouring and lumber) in which he continued for about seven 
years, and then turned his attention to the ptublic works of the 
State as a contractor, in which he continued until the works were 
suspended. He then returned to his farm, (having always con- 
tinued his agricultural pursuits in connection with his other busi- 
ness,) and engaged extensively in the lumber trade. In 1854 he 
was elected as Representative from his county on the People's 
ticket. In 1855 he was chosen as Superintendent of the Madison 
and Indianapolis Railroad, which position he ftill holds. As a 
member of the Legislature of the session of '55, he was known 
as a working member, and so well have his services been appre- 
ciated that he has been returned every session since. In the 
House he exercises the same indomitable energy and industry 
that have marked his whole life, and carved out for him his pies- 
ent honorable position. Mr. Branham in politics is a Republ'". 
can, but not blinded by party fanaticism or bigotry. The good 
of his constituents, county, State and nation, is the sole motive of 
his action, and every proposition which involves the interest of 
the taxpayer, he examines in all its details ; and if, in his opinion 
it is calculated to add unnecessarily one dollar to the already bur- 
densome taxation under which the people of the State are strug- 
gling, he does not fail to make his objections known. He is 
an eloquent speaker, a prudent legislator, and a gentleman who, 
by his affability and genial manners, is calculated to wield great 
influence in any position of life in which he may be placed. He 
was married to Miss Cynthia Ann Watson, of Jennings county, 
in 1833. Post office address Madison, Indiana. 



M. L. BRETT. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DAVIESS COUNTY. 

Mr. Brett was born in EdgeQeld District, South Carolina, 
January 5th, 1823, and emigrated, with his parents, to Washing- 
ton, Daviess county, Indiana, in 1831, where he has since resided* 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Mr. B. is a Democrat, but has not interested himself much in 
political affairs, and possesses but little taste for that uneasy and 
tempestuous life. He held the office of Auditor of Daviess county 
from September, 1844, until November, 1859, whi^-h office he re- 
ceived on account of his peculiar fitness for the place, and not 
from any great and continued effort on his part to obtain it. Du" 
ring that long time the various duties of his office were performed 
in such a manner as received the entire and hearty approval o^ 
the people of the county. In 1860 he was elected to the Legis- 
lature, and]the present session is his first term in the General As- 
sembly. He performs his duties as Representative in a prompt 
and efficient manner; and with a fidelity to the interests of his 
constituents and the State that is truly commendable. More of a 
business man than a politician, his views in regard to legislation 
are sound and practical, being entirely free from the speculative 
notions which, when carried out in the shape of laws, have always 
resulted in injury to the State, and an increased indebtedness. A 
legislature composed of such men as Mr. Brett would never in- 
-volve the State in a ruinous system of public improvements. His 
business is milling and farming, which he carries on with an en- 
terprise and industry that knows no stopping place. He was 
married at Vincennes, Ind., June 1st, 1858 to Miss Alice Hayes. 



JM". BRUCKER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PERRY COUNTY. 

Mr. Brucker was born in Germany, September Gth, 1828, and 
emigrated to the United States in 1849. By profession he is a 
physician, and is celebrated in the part of the State where he 
practices, for his skill and success in treating the diseases of the 
country. His medical education is of that thorough and com- 
plete character conferred by the institutions of his native 
country, having graduated at Strasburg. Being an admirer 
of free institutions and a republican form of government, his emi- 
gration to this country was not so much the result of a desire to 
improve his condition in a pecuniary sense, as to enjoy the bless- 
ings of a government that has so many admirers and staunch sup- 
porters among his countrymen. He is a member of the Eepub- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Hcan party, and from the time he identified himself with that or- 
ganization has advocated its principles with a zeal that has re- 
ceived the approbation and indorsement of the Republicans of 
Perry county, and finally resulted in their honoring him with a 
seat in the House of Representatives. As a legislator he is dis- 
creet, being governed by that caution for which Germans are so 
distinguished. As a man he is unpretending, assuming to him- 
self no praise or honor that he is not justly entitled to, and the 
party to which he belongs will never have cause to regret the se- 
lection of Mr. Brucker as their Representative. Post ofiice ad- 
dress — Troy, Perry county, Indiana. 



WILLIAM H. BRYAN, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM TIPPECANOE COUNTY. 

Mr. Bryan was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, May 
16th, 1822. His father, John Bryan, died when William H. was 
but eight years of age, leaving him dependent upon his own ex- 
ertions to carve out his fortunes. In his 16th year he emi- 
grated to Indiana, and settled in Tippecanoe township, Tippeca 
noe county. Until his 20th year, his time was principally devo- 
ted to farm labor, receiving not more than six months schooling 
during that time; but by the time he had attained to this age, by 
his own industry and application he had fitted himself for the du- 
ties of a school teacher, in which he engaged for nearly fourteen 
years. Spending four years of his time after his removal to In- 
diana in farming, at 20 he commenced teaching, and having in 
due time, saved some means, he purchased a small tract of land 
to which he continued to make additions, as his means would per- 
mit, until he now has a good farm, well improved. On the 16th 
day of April, 1816, he was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter 
of James Severson, of Tippecanoe county. March 1st, 1860, he 
removed from his farm and settled at the Tippecanoe Battle 
(Iround, where he now resides, trading in stock, &c. Politically, 
Mr. Bryan had been raised a Whig in the Henry Clay school; but 
upon its disorganization, he became identified with the Republi- 
can party, and has since acted and voted with that party. He has 



88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

filled various township offices in the township of his residence; 
and to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. In the month of 
April, 1858, he was a candidate for representative at the nomi- 
nating election, but was defeated by a very few votes. Giving 
his firm support to the nominees, he had the pleasure of seeing 
them elected ; and in April, 1860, he was again a candidate, and 
was nominated, and in October, 18G0, was elected by 993 major- 
ity. His colleague from that county is Jarvis J. Jones, an attor- 
ney. Their opponents were William T. Murdock and George 
W. Anderson, farmers and Democrats. As a Representative 
Mr. Bryan was a faithful, consistent and honest public ser- 
vant. Having from his earliest youth been thrown ixpon his own 
resources, he has become a practical thinking and working man. 
Mr. Bryan has devoted a good part of his leisure hours for sev- 
years past to the study of law, and has practiced to some extent. 
His legal attainments are of no mean order, and reflect credit 
upon his studious habits. In all his life, Mr. Bryan has never 
been a delinquent in the commonest case of law — was never a de- 
fendant in any case whatever — and what is more, never drar:k a 
drop of ardent spirits in his life. Mr. Bryan introduced a bill 
providing for the enclosure of the Tippecanoe battle ground by 
an iron fence, which will probably become a law — having passed 
to a third reading at this writing. Post ofiice address — Battle 
Ground, Tippecanoe county, Indiana. 



MARTIN L. BUNDY. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM HENRY COUNTY. 

Mr. BuNDY was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, on 
the 11th day of November, 1817, and came to the State of In- 
diana in the spring of the following year. His early education 
was such as the country, in its then undeveloped condition, afi"or- 
ded; but having conceived a taste for literature, the means of grat- 
ifying it were procured, and few boys of his day were better edu- 
cated. His education was completed at Miami University, while 
under the presidency of the late Dr. R. II. Bishop, of whom he 
was a favorite pupil. On leaving the University, he commenced 
studying law with the Hon. John T. Elliott, and in 18-12, ho was 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 89 



admitted to practice, and shortly afterwards formed a partnership 
with his late preceptor, which lasted until the latter was elected 
Circuit Judf^-e in 1844. He was nominated by his ])olitical friends 
of the late Whig party, of which he was an active lueniber until 
its dissolution, and in August, 1844, elected County Treasurer, 
ai^d served as such for three years to the satisfaction of the peo- 
ple. He declined a re-election, and from that time devoted him- 
self to his profession, and obtained a lucrative practice. In 1848, 
he was chosen to represent his Congressional District in the Whig 
National Convention which met in Philadelphia and nominated 
Gen. Taylor for the Presidency. Though a devoted friend to 
Mr. Clay for the nomination, he nevertheless supported the for- 
mer with great ardor. This year (1848) he was chosen to repre- 
sent his county, for the first time in the General Assembly. — 
There are but three members of that session in the present body 
."Speaker Allen, of Knox; Dr Ford, of Jackson, and Judge Bundy, 
of Henry. In 1852, he was chosen Judge of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas for his District, and again in 185G, for another term 
of four years, which expired last October, when he was again se- 
lected to represent Henry county in the General Assembly, As 
a Judge he was deservedly popular with both the bar and people, 
and he has always had their confidence in an eminent degree. — 
This is doubtless the result of that candor and fairness which have 
always been his characteristics as a lawyer, citizen and Judge. — 
In 185G, he was also chosen as a Delegate to represent his Dis- 
trict in the Philadelphia Convention, which nominated Col. Fre- 
mont for the Presidency, and took an active part to insure his 
election. As a legislator, Mr. Bundy is no less efficient than in 
the capacity of attorney or Judge ; and has secured the confidence 
and esteem of the members of the House by the exercise of the 
same manly qualities that have rendered him so popular with the 
people of his county and District. He is endowed with superior 
talents, and will doubtless, in the future, act a conspicuous part 
in the public afi"airs of the State. Post office address— Newcastle, 
Henry county, Indiana. 



90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

JAMES BURGESS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM HENDRICKS COUNTY. 

Mr. Burgess, the present Representative from the County of 
Hendricks, Avas born in Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, August 
1st, 182G. In the year 1832, the family removed from Ohio and 
settled in Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana. In 1S35, they re- 
moved from Wayne county to Belville, in Hendricks county, 
where he continued to reside until 1852. While living in Bell- 
ville, Mr. B. apprenticed himself to and learned the tanning bus- 
ness, which he followed industriously for a number ot* years, but 
his health failing him, he commenced selling goods in the same 
village, and continued in that business for four years. In Au- 
gust, 1846, was married to Miss Minerva, the amiable and intelli- 
gent daughter of Thomas Iron, Esq. In 1852, Mr. Burgess re- 
moved to Danville, the county seat of Hendricks county, and was 
appointed Deputy Clerk, which place he filled with honor to him- 
self, and to the entire satisfaction of the people until August 26) 
1860. In this year he was nominated, almost without opposition, 
by the Repiibliean Convention for a seat in the Legislature, and 
was triumphantly elected. This is the first office 3Ir. Burgess ever 
held, and the first time he was ever a candidate. In politics he 
was formerly a Whig, and zealously and faithfully clung to that 
organization until the formation of the Republican party, since 
which time no person in Central Indiana has done more to build 
up and sustain the party or gave it more efficient aid, and no man 
can point to a better record, politically, than Mr. B. In pri- 
vate life no person is more esteemed and better loved than him; 
fond of company, he is the center of attraction in evei'y group that 
is favored with his presence. His popularity is of the positive 
rather than of the negative kind, and the extent of it may be 
judged by the majority he received at the late election. In 1856, 
the average Republican majority was less than 200, while, in 
1860, it was over 700, and no man on the ticket helped to bring 
about the result more than Mr. Burgess. It is too soon to speak 
of his public life; but it will be sufficient to say that, though 
young, he has taken a prominent position as a working member 
of that body. He is Chairman of the committee on Manufactures 
and an efficient member of the committee on Penitentiary, Printing, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 91 

Military Affairs, the select committee on Apportionment, and on 
Federal Kelations. The following is from a leading paper of the 
State : 

" One of the most active and effective working members of the 
State Legislalure is the young llepresentative from Hendricks, 
Hon. James Burgess. From the commencement of the session 
he has addressed himself, with commendable industry, to the leg- 
islation demanded by the interests of his section and the State at 
large. If the Legishiture was composed entirely of such men as 
Branham, Burgess, Cameron and others we might meiition of the 
same industry and business capacity, a thirty days' session would 
be amply sufficient for all the legislation required by the State." 

Mr. Burgess certainly has a brilliant career before him — com- 
menced in such a glorious manner — should he decide to continue 
in political life. Always equal to any emergency in which he 
may be placed; transacting his own business with commendable 
zeal and industry, it is but fair to infer, that the interests of the 
public, if confided to him, will be in safe hands. Post oflfice ad- 
dress — Danville, Hendricks county, Indiana. 



ROBERT A. CAMERON, M- D., 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PORTER COUNTY. 

Dr. CAMERONwas born in Brooklyn, New York, February 22d, 
1828, and became a citizen of Porter county, Indiana, in 1843. 
His father, R. A. Cameron was an iron merchant, and died when 
Robert A., jr., was but seven years of age ; and at that early pe- 
riod he commenced life for himself as a "farmer boy," and con- 
tinued in that honorable occupation until the year 1846. In his 
eighteenth year he entered the office of J. L. Stockton, M. D., 
of Valparaiso, as a student of medicine, pursued it with energy 
and industry, and graduated with honor and distinction at the 
•Indiana Medical College, at La Porte, Ind., in the year 1850. He 
at once opened an office for the practice of his profession at Val- 
paraiso, his present place of residence, and succeeded in estab- 
lishing for himself a fine reputation as a physycian, and in secu- 
ring a good practice, notwithstanding that village and county 
(Porter) was well supplied with many older physicians who stood 
well in that vicinity. In the month of March, 1849, he married 
Miss Jane E. Porter, a very amiable young lady, and daughter of 



92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

P. A. Porter, Esq., of that place. During the Mexican war, Dr. 
Cameron volunteered his services under Captain (now Colonel) 
Joseph P. Smith, of Lake county, who served during that war, 
but in consequence of the Regiment being full his company was 
not called out, and he was not permitted to participate in fighting 
his country's battles in that struggle. Politically. Dr. Cameron 
was a Democrat until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line, 
and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854. At the or- 
ganization of the Republican party, he became one of its most 
ardent, devoted and working members. In 1857 he purchased 
the ofiice of the Observer, at Valparaiso, and changed the name 
of the paper to that of the Republic, since which time he has been 
its editor and publisher, and no paper in iSTorth-western Indiana 
has wielded a more potent influence for the good of its party than 
has the Rejmblic with Dr. Cameron as its editor. He is a clear 
and forcible writer, a deep thinker, with a fine flow of language, 
and quick perceptive faculties that enable him to draw ready con- 
clusions, and produce arguments that cannot be easily gainsayed^ 
In the month of June, 1860, he was put in nomination by the Re- 
publicans of Porter county, as their candidate for Representative, 
in opposition to Phillip Hall, Esq., one of the most prominent 
and influential Democrats of the county, over whom he was elected 
by a majority of 384 votes. As a Representative he is dignified 
and courteous. In argument he is clear and dispassionate, never 
attempting a speech unless fully versed in the subject under dis- 
cussion. He has been educated in the school of self-reliance, 
and may be justly recognized as a self-made m,an in the fullest 
sense of the term. His personal appearance is commanding, and 
when addressing the House he never fails to elicit the warmest 
commendations from all who come within the range of his voice, 
which is full, clear and musical. He is a man of the people, and 
as such is devoted to their interests, which he watches with a jeal- 
ous eye and is always one of the first to be heard when the rights 
of the people are sought to be assailed by special legislation for 
the benefit of corporate monopolies. This is his first term in 
any Legislative Assembly, and well did he sustain the confidence 
reposed in him by his constituency. Of his ability and integrity 
they had a just appreciation, and his legislative eff"orts are untar- 
nished by the least infraction of honor or duty. Fortunate are 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 03 

any people who choose such a man as II. A. Cameron as their 
Representative in any capacity. Inured to toil from his early 
boyhood his votes, his speeches and his acts are ever for the rightg 
of the people — in favor of free homes, and above all, for free 
schools. Post office address — Valparaiso, Indiana. 



T. J. CASOW, 

KEPRESENTATIVE FROM BOONE AND HENDRICKS COUNTIES. 

Mr. Cason was born in Union county, Indiana, September llith, 
1828. His father, James Cason, a respectable and thrifty farmer, 
was born in South Carolina, and emigrated to the State of Ohio, 
and from that State to Union county, Ind., and from there to 
Boone county, in 1831, at which time the last named county wag 
an entire wilderness, in which the finest dwellings were diminu- 
tive log cabins, and the choicest luxuries of the table — with the 
exception of wild game — consisted of "corn dodger " and "mast- 
fed pork." Mr. C, until he was 17 years of age, labored faith- 
fully on his father's farm, assisted in all the hard work attendant 
upon making a comfortable home in the wilderness. At that age 
he turned his attention to school teaching and the study of the 
law. He commenced his professional studies in the office of Messrs, 
Lane & Wilson, of Crawfordsville, (now Senator Lane) and was 
admitted to the Bar at the spring term (1850) of the Montgomery 
Circuit Court, and immediately commenced the practice at Leba- 
non, Boone County. Mr. C. is a graduate of the common school. 
That is, he learned there all that was to be learned, and after- 
wards read with great care and attention a large number of use- 
ful books, and further prosecuted his studies until he had mas- 
tered all the branches of an English education. Since 1850 he 
has been actively engaged in the political affairs of the country 
and in investigating the principles and policy of the different par- 
ties, and sifting the very small amount of wisdom from the over- 
whelming ocean of error contained in party platforms, he has dis- 
covered nothing, in his estimation, as well calculated to subserve 
the interests of the various sections of the country and perpetuate 
its institutions, as the conservative principles of the Republican 
party, of which he is an influential and working member. As 



94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

editor of the Boone County Ledger^ in which capacity he acted 
for a short time, Mr. Cason became known to the readers of that 
journal as a forcible and clear-sighted political writer. His 
present position is the first ofiice ever conferred upon him. He 
made the canvass for joint Representative of the counties of Boone 
and Hendricks, against the Rev. Edmun Herod, and was elected 
by 897 majority, Mr. C. is a fine lawyer, a prudent and indus- 
trious Representative, an enterprising citizen, and a man who is 
esteemed by his neighbors on account of his honorable course of 
life, his kind and forgiving disposition and goodness of heart. — 
Post office address — Lebanon, Boone county, Indiana. 



PHILEMON N. COLLIN'S, 

REPRESENTATIVE EROM ADAMS COUNTY. 

>^ Mr. Collins was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, November 7, 
1820. Mr. C.'s early years were spent in Richland county, and 
at the age of 16 years removed to Franklin county, where he 
remained until 21 years old. He commenced the profession of 
teaching at 18 years of age, and followed it until the spring of 
1849; teaching, in the meantime, in the Slates of Ohio, Missouri 
and Indiana. In 1848 he married in Adams county, Ind., and 
selected a home in the timber land on the Wabash river and com- 
menced clearing up a farm, where he now resides. In 1849 he 
was appointed Surveyor of Adams county, and continued to dis- 
charge the duties of that office until June, 1858, and then re- 
signed, principally on account of failing health. Since 1850 Mr. 
Collins has taken a lively interest in politics. His opponent in 
the late political struggle, which gave Mr. Collins a seat in the 
House of Representatives, was Mr, Josephus Martin, a farmer by 
profession. Our readers must not conclude that Mr. Collins de- 
votes his entire energies to politics. He is a practical farmer, 
and cultivates the soil with his own hands. Such men are gen- 
erally safe legislators, and work with as much zeal for the public 
welfare as they exercise in the management of their own afi"airs. 
Post office address — Limberlost, Adams county, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. . 95 

JAMES S. COLLINS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM HUNTINGTON AND WHITLEY COUNTIES. 

Mr. Collins was born in Wayne county, Indiana, December 
24th, 1810. In politics Mr. C. is a Republican, of decided popu- 
larity with his party, and Republicanism has no truer or more 
zealous champion than him. The place he now occupies in the 
Lower House was not secured by any seeking or solicitation on 
his part, but was conferred upon him by a constituency among 
whom he is deservedly popular, as a mark of their admiration of 
the man. Although he has not been favored with a collegiate 
course, a thirst for knowledge, coupled with an unyielding indus- 
try and perseverance, enabled him to obtain a very creditable 
education ; sufficiently practical and varied to make him an effi- 
cient legislator, and a sound, thorough lawyer. He has a large 
practice, and few members of the Indiana Bar have met with 
more uniform success — the result of his close study of the text 
hooks and familiarity with the statutes of the State. He devotes 
himself entirely to the interests of his clients with a zeal at once 
praiseworthy and entirely professional. Prior to 1860 he took 
very little part in politics. In that year he was placed in nomi- 
nation by the Republican party for a seat in the General Assem- 
bly, and was elected over Isaiah B. McDonald by '454 majority, re, 
ceiving 298 majority in Whitley and 15G in Huntington county. 
This is his first term. Post office address — Columbia City, Indi- 
ana. 



WILLIAM COMBES, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM OWEN COUNTY. 

Mr. CoMBEs is now and always has been a zealous Democrat. 
He was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, February 23d, 1798. 
Mr. Combes makes his advent as a member of the House, this ses- 
sion for the first time ; and although he has launched out into the 
political arena to an extent that secured his election to the Legis- 
lature, his tastes are not in that direction, and he is far from be- 
ing what may be termed a prfessional politician. In the canvass 



96 BIOQRAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 

which resulted in his election as a member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, he had Mr. John H. Martin for his opponent. In 
his views on the slavery question he is conservative, and is an 
unfaltering friend of the Union. It is a part of his political 
creed, that the laws should be rigidly enforced, and that the Con- 
stitution should protect the rights of all the citizens in all the 
States and Territories, and throw its fostering care around every 
species of property recognized by that instrument, in everyplace 
where the authority and laM'S of the United States obtain. Mr. 
C. is not a gr.iduate ; and although possessing a fair education, he 
owes it to his own unceasing efforts to supply that which circum- 
stances in his early years did not afford him. In the House of 
Representatives he maintains a high character among his peers as a 
legislator, and in him the interests of the State have a watchful 
guardian, and his constituents afathful servant. 



ELIAS COOPRIDEB, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM CLAY COUNTY. 

Mr. CooPRiDER was born in Harrison county, Indiana, Novem- 
ber 10th, 1810, while Indiana was still a Territory and wilderness. 
His parents v\rere both natives of Kentucky. In youth Mr. C.'s 
progress up the Hill of Science was slow, having been favored with 
only forty days schooling in the rude log cabins, used at that day 
for school houses. However, there was one advantage in the log 
edifices of learning in vogue in the days of the Territory — in win- 
ter the scholars could not sleep on their benches without danger 
of freezing; nor in summer without falling out through the open- 
ings between the logs, greatly to the danger of their necks. They 
were always occupied, too, for when the winter quarter was ended, 
the inhabitants of the forest — owls and lizzards — took possession, 
and held it until the snow made its appearance. Mr. Cooprider 
was not discouraged; and determined to make anothor effort at 
mental culture. Being studious in liis habits, he made good use 
of the books to be had in the neighborhood, and succeeded so 
well, that he mastered the elements of an English education, 
which he afterwards improved and enriched by historical and sci- 
entific reading. He was brought up a ftirmcr at which occupation, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 97 

he has done much good service in clearing away the forest wilds 
and causing the luxuriant corn and wheat to flourish in their 
stead ; and he is now one of the most thrifty and prominent far- 
mers in the fertile and wealthy county he represents in the pres- 
ent General Assembly. In politics he is an unswerving Demo- 
crat, never having professed any other political faith, and he has 
labored long and well for the advancement of the principles of his 
party. This is his first term in the Legislature, and in the can- 
vass which resulted in his election he was opposed by Absolom 
Briley, Republican, and Abijah Dunham, independent Democrat. 
Mr. C. was elected Sheriff of Clay county, in 1846, and served two 
years. He is a wise and careful legislator, and enjoys a large share 
of confidence and popularity among his constituents. He was 
married on the 13th of October, 1831 to Miss Polly* Langford, of 
Pulaski county, Kentucky. Post office address — Bowling Green, 
Clay county, Indiana. 



JOHN G. GRAIN, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PARKE COUNTY. 

Mr. Grain was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, No- 
vember 7th, 1821, and removed to Montgomery county, Ind., in 
1830. He attended the Wabash College at Crawfordsville, pur- 
sued his studies with a diligence that rapidly forwarded him in 
his course, and resulted in the acquirement of an excellent ed- 
ucation. After leaving the College he studied law in the s^ame 
town, in the office of Messrs. Gregory & Thomson. He was an 
industrious law student, and applied himself to the books with 
a devoted-attention that stored his mind with a full understand- 
ing of the elementary principles contained in the standard au- 
thors, and was admitted to the Bar in 1844, acquitting himself in 
the examination to the satisfaction of his preceptors, and clearly 
demonstrating the fact that his studies had been crowned with 
the most desirable results. After being admitted he practised 
three years in Vermillion county with marked success; and in 
1849 he removed to Rockville and formed a law partnership with 
J. M.Allen, Esq., in '53. 3Ir. B. is agood lawyer, being thoroughly 
versed in all the branches of his profession Jbrought in requisition 
7 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

in our courts ; and attends to the legal business entrusted to his 
care with a fidelity and promptness that generally crown his ef- 
forts with success, and annually add to the number of his clients. 
In the prosecution of his business he exercises a degree of indus- 
try not common to most members of the Bar, but which is a nev- 
er-failing element of success in legal undertakings — for it mat- 
ters not how well the student is posted, or how successfully he 
passes the examination, if he afterwards neglects his books, he 
will soon, professionally, retrograde into the diminutive propor- 
tions of the pettifogger. In the House of Representatives Mr^ 
C. is known as an active and working member; and although he 
does not unnecessarily consume time in speaking on every trivial 
motion and resolution before the House, he never fails to pro- 
claim his views in a forcible and effective manner when business 
of importance comes up for consideration. His character as a 
citizen is all that he can desire — enjoying as he does the confi- 
dence and friehdship of his neighbors, and a large degree of pop- 
ularity among the voters of his county. Mr. Grain uniformly ex- 
tends his aid to all enterprises which are in their nature calcula- 
ted to promote either State or local interests, and thus has se 
cured the admiration and esteem of all friends of improvement 
in his county. In reference to these subjects, his views are prac- 
tical — never indorsing the wild chimeras of visionary minds. — 
Hence his eminent qualifications as a legislator. Making no pre- 
tensions to superior talent, he is, nevertheless, gifted with a 
mind far above mediocrity, and is in every respect, just such a 
man as the wise and good always appreciate in all the relations of 
life. Post office address — Rockville, Parke county, Indiana. 



JOHN T. DASHIELL, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM RIPLEY COUNTY. 

Mr. Dashiell was born in Somerset county, Maryland, Sep- 
tember, 30th, 1818. He was brought by his parents to Dearborn 
county, Ind., in 1819, three years after the organization of the 
State ; and in 1847 removed from Dearborn to Ripley county, and 
settled on the farm where he now resides. In regard to educa- 
tional matters, his history is similar to that of many of the pres- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 99 

ent members of the General Assembly — the common school hav- 
ing served him as a college. His thirst for knowledge, however, 
stimulated him in the prosecution of his studies until he had ac- 
quired an education highly creditable, and which eminently fits 
him for any position in life that he may be called upon to occupy 
— whether public or private. His early life was one of toil, hav- 
ing been raised on a farm. As a farmer he is skillful, thrifty and 
industrious, tilling his land to the best advantage, and performing 
the various labors of the farm at the most propitious time. As a 
General thing he has been a stranger in the political arena ; the 
wire-working and duplicity of mere politicians not being conge- 
nial with his ideas of managing governmental affairs ; and when, 
as a member of the Republican party, he took a part in their 
meetings and conventions, he was an advocate for the observance 
of honesty and fairness in selecting candidates for office — not be- 
lieving, as some do — that everything in politics, as in war, is fair. 
He was never a candidate for any State or county office until the 
summer of 18G0, when his party placed him on their ticket as a 
candidate for Representative, to which position he was elected by 
a very respectable majority. He commands a full share of influ- 
ence as a member of the Lower House; and is acknowledged to be 
an active, working member. No man in that body stands fairer 
with his constituents than Mr. D. He was married on the 1st of 
January, 1844, to Miss Elizabeth Montgomery. Post office ad- 
dress — Delaware, Ripley county Indiana. 



SAMUEL DAVIS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM SCOTT COUNTY. 

Mr, Davis was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, July 9th 
181.3, and emigrated to Indiana in the year 1819, where he has 
ever since resided. He was married to Miss Julia Ann, daughter 
of Nicholas and Mary Traylor, of Scott county, November 6th 
1834. Mr. Davis was bred to the occupation of a farmer, and had 
not the advantages of a classical education. Mr. D., we learn 
has taken an active part in political affairs for the last twenty 
years, being one of the true and tried Democrats, and never was 
refused any office that he asked in his county. After having 



100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

served his county sisjyears as School Commissioner, he was, in the 
year 1845, elected a Representative in the State Legisalture fof 
VFhich office he was opposed by Matthew Henning. He was again 
elected to the same office in the year 1850, and was opposed by 
the same gentleman. He was again elected to the same office in 
the year 1860, and was opposed by Alfred Hays. Mr. Davis has 
always opposed every extravagance by the Legislature, always at- 
tending close to business, guarding the interest of the State and 
his county, and stands high as a legislator. He is a true and 
zealous friend to the Union, and believes that all kinds of prop* 
erty recognized cy the Constitution of the United States should 
be protected, giving equal rights in all the Territories of the 
Union ; and if the North and South cannot agree let them part 
in a peaceable manner. Post office address — New Frankfort, 
Scott county, Indiana. 



CUTLER S. DOBBIITS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM MARTIN COUNTY. 

Mr. Dobbins was born in Steubenville, Ohio, June 22d, 1831. 
His father, Alfred Dobbins, with his family, moved from Ohio to 
Madison, Indiana, in 1836; from there to Louisville, Kentucky, 
and to the State of Tennessee in 1839, where Mr. Dobbins, Sr., 
engaged in the furnace business. In the latter State Mr. Dob- 
bins, Jr., attended school in a log cabin. In 1849 he went to Pa- 
ducah, Kentucky, and to Louisville in 1850, where he learned the 
business of stove moulding. During his sojourn in Louisville he 
took an active part in the Presidential canvass in favor of Gen_ 
Pierce in 1852, for Mr. D. is a zealous Democrat. In 1853 he 
settled in Hindostan, Martin county, Indiana, and in 1855 was 
elected to the office of Township Trustee. In 1856 he was elected 
to the Legislature from his adopted county, his opponent being 
a very influential gentleman, Aaron Houghton — a Whig in politics ; 
Dobbin's majority being 217. He was elected to the Legislature 
from the same county in 1858, over Dr. W. F. Delemeter — a 
Whig — by a majority of 285. He served in the special session of 
1858 and the regular session of 1859, and was re-elected again in 
1860 a member of the present General Assembly, over the Rev. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 101 

Thomas Butler, a Republican, by a majority of 120. His pro- 
fession is that of the law. The following extract, bearing testi- 
mony to the merits of Mr. Dobbins, is from an influential paper 
published in Columbus, Bartholomew county, Indiana, whose edi- 
tor served with him in the Legislature of 1S57 : 

" We had the pleasure of serving with Mr. Dobbins during the 
session of 1857. He was a leading and influential member, and 
guarded the interests of his constituents and the State in a man- 
ner worthy of one of more mature years. In Mr. Dobbins are 
centered those qualifications so essential to make the Representa- 
tive in the true sense, honest, faithful and capable. He was again 
nominated by his party in 1858, and elected by a handsome ma- 
jority to the sessions of 1858-59. He served his people with 
such signal ability that again, in 1860, his constituents demanded 
his services, and he could only prevent his nomination by a posi- 
tive refusal to serve them, whereupon the Democracy proceeded 
to nominate Mr. Clark, a sterling Democrat and popular gentle- 
man. The result between Mr. Clark and his competitor was a tie 
vote. Again the Democracy appealed to Mr. Dobbins to make 
the race, believing as they did that he was the only one that could 
bear aloft to victory that old time-honored Democratic banner. 
The result of this election was that Mr. Dobbins received a ma- 
jority of 40 votes over his competitor, but owing to some infor- 
mality in the return of the tally papers and poll books, it was de- 
cided that there was still no election. The friends of Mr. Dob- 
bins and his competitor held a meeting and decided they should 
run the race over ; and accordingly, on the 10th day of January, 
1861, the election was held, Mr. Dobbins receiving 120 majority. 
There are few men who enter the legislative halls as young as he 
who have sustained so good a reputation for honesty of purpose, 
honesty, integrity of character, and all that is calculated to endear 
him to those he so faithfully represents. One of the ablest 
speeches during the present session was delivered by Mr. Dob- 
bins in the House, on the 14th instant, against Mr. Veatch's 
Bank bill, which proposes to establish five additional branches. 
His argument was clear, concise and forcible. He reviewed the 
whole subject, from the granting of the bank charter down to the 
present time, handling it without gloves. In fact, he made a 
timely and telling speech, as he does in almost every thing that 
enlists his feelings. He is opposed to the present Interest bill, 
allowing ten per cent, on money, &c. When that shall come upon 
its final passage the friends of the measure may well wish his seat 
vacant." 

Post office address — Loogootee, Martin county, Indiana. 



102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

JOSEPH P. EDSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM VANDERBURG AND POSEY COUNTIES. 

Mr. Edson, the subject of this sketch, is a native of the State 
of Indiana, having been born in his present place of residence, 
Mount Vernon, Posey county, August 8d, 1831. His father; 
Eben D. Edson, who was a native of Richfiekl, Otsego county' 
New York, came West and located at Mount Vernon in 1828 
where he continued to reside up to the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1846. He was one of the ablest lawyers in the south- 
ern part of the State, and also a fine classical scholar, being a 
graduate of Dickinson College, New York. Joseph, although no^ 
a college graduate, has a liberal education. He was, up to the 
time of his father's death, a constant attendant of the schools of 
the place of his nativity, receiving thorough instruction in all of 
the branches taught therein. In addition, he was directed and 
assisted in his studies by his father, who was a great lover of the 
classics, and who devoted most of his leisure time in aiding and 
stimulating his son to study. The result was that the latter, at 
the age of 14: years, was as good a classical scholar as many gradu- 
ates of colleges; having a good knowledge of the Latin and Greek 
languages, and being able to read French and German with con- 
siderable fluency. He was also a good mathematician, that being 
his/or/e. During his boyhood he translated portions of •' Histo- 
ria Sacra," " Eomae Vria," " Csesar's Commentaries," " Cicero's 
Orations," and " Virgil,'' entire ; also portions of " Horace." His 
translations in the Greek were confined to portions of the Greek 
Testament, " Gra^ca Minora," and "Xenophon's Cyropoeda." 

Upon the death of his father, Mr. Edson was, in a measure 
thrown upon his own resoures. He attended school but a short 
time after that event. Although he had a great anxiety to con- 
tinue his studies and complete his education at College, his advi- 
sers counseled him to engage in mercantile pursuits, which he 
did; but finding them uncongenial, abandoned them, and subse- 
quently obtained employment in the clerk's ofiice of his county, 
and still later, in teaching school. Six years were thus passed> 
when, being still dissatisfied, and impressed with his unfitness for 
any of the avocations he had chosen, he was induced to com- 
mence the study of law. He entered as a student in the office o 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 103 

the Hon. Alvin P. Hovey, at that time ex Judge of the Circuit 
Court, and since one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the 
State, and U. S. District Attorney. In 1854, after three years' 
study, Mr. Edson was admitted to the bar, and soon obtained a 
fair practice. In October, 1854, he was the Democratic candi- 
date for District Attorney for the counties of Posey and Gibson, 
and was elected over bis competitor, Paschal H. Lockett (K. N. 
candidate) by a majority of 446. During the two years for which 
he was elected he discharged the duties of his. office promptly and 
efficiently. On the 29th of May, 1856, he was united in marriage 
to Miss Mary S. Nettelton, daughter of William Nettelton, Esq., 
of Mount Vernon. In January, 1860, he was appointed by the 
Democratic State Convention a contingent Delegate for the State 
at large to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston. 
During the same year he was nominated by the Democracy of 
his county as a candidate for joint Representative for the coun- 
ties of Posey and Vanderburg, without any solicitation on his 
part; in fact, against his expressed wishes; which nomination 
was subsequently ratified by the Democracy of Vanderburg coun- 
ty. He was opposed by John E.. Hugo, (Republican,) and was, 
owing to an unfortunate division in the Democratic party, and the 
popularity of his opponent, elected by a majority of only 46 
votes. In his own county he received a majority of 401, and a 
larger vote than most of the other county candidates. Mr. Ed- 
son has always been a Democrat in politics, and during the ex-~- 
citing canvass of 1854 made speeches in all parts of his county 
against Know Nothingism. He is not, however, what is properly 
termed a politician, having, since he commenced the practice of 
his profession, refrained for the most part from engaging in any- 
thing outside of it. He has a large practice, and has been quite 
successful as a practitioner, pecuniarily and otherwise. He is 
not a very fluent speaker, but possesses sound judgment and a 
good knowledge of law, and is every way reliable and trustwor- 
thy. In his case, the old adage that " a prophet is not without 
honor except in his own country," has not been verified, the field 
of his efi'orts have been the place of his birth and continued resi- 
dence. During the two years last past, he has been a warm ad- 
vocate of " Popular Sovereignty," and an ardent admirer of Ste- 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

phen A. Douglas, not so much as a man, as the exponent of a 
great principle. Post office address — Mount Vernon, Posey 
county. Ind. 



RICHARD EPPERSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 

Mr. Epperson, in politics is a Republican. He was born in 
the State of Virginia, May 15th, 1818. The writer has no data 
from which to glean the particulars of 'jhe early life and educa- 
tion of Mr. Epperson. This much, however, is at hand that his 
talents, education and intelligence are respectable, if not superior. 
By profession he is a carpenter, and this is his first term in the 
Legislature. He was elected over his opponent in the late can- 
vass, Mr. Alexander Harper, by 111 majority. Post office ad- 
dress — Whitesville, Montgomery county, Indiana. 



HUGH ERWIW, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY. 

Mr. Erwin was born February 18th, 1836, in a log cabin situ- 
ated on a bluff in the bend of White river, Lawrence county, In- 
diana. His father being a farmer, the early part of his life was 
faithfully devoted to that laborious pursuit and the rugged sports 
and recreations (fox-hunting, fishing, &c.,) incident to that call- 
ing. On the 18th of September, 1854, at the age of eighteen, he 
entered college as a student of the Indiana Asbury University at 
Grreencastle, and pursued for a time a course of studies in the 
Scientific Deparment. On the 18th day of November, 1856, he 
entered Judge Downey's Law School, connected with the Univer- 
sity at Greencastle. During the summer of 1857 he pursued a 
course of study in the law office of Phelps & Madeira, Covington, 
Kentucky, at the same time attending the Courts, and observing 
the practice in Cincinnati. In the fall of the same year he re- 
turned to Greencastle, completed the elementary course of study, 
and graduated with honor on the 4th of February, 1858. He has 
never practiced his profession to any great extent, the force of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 105 

circumstances compelling him to engage in another department 
of effort — farming. In his early youth (Mr. E. is yet quite a 
young man, only 24 years of age — the youngest member of the 
House) he had to contend against very adverse circumstances, and 
Lad to teach, and work his way along through life as best he could. 
He has never been a very active partisan, always conservative, 
and avoiding radical tendencies. He was brought up in the Whig 
school, and in the Presidential election of 1856 was an American, 
and supported Millard Filmore. On the 30th of June last he 
was nominated by a convention of Republicans and Americans as 
Opposition candidate for Representative. The race was made 
principally on State politics, (joint discussions confined to State 
politics alone) though frequently making speeches on National 
politics, standing on the Chicago platform and supporting its nom 
inees. He had two competitors, supported respectively by the 
friends of Douglas and Breckinridge. His Douglas competitor 
was a man who had served in the State Senate, a man of some ce- 
lebrity, and a prominent politician of the Democratic party in that 
county. His Breckinridge competitor was some years his senior, 
but a younger man than his Douglas opponent, Mr. Hostetler^ 
Mr. Erwin's vote was very flattering; and after what many of his 
friends called a gallant fight, he was triumphantly elected, on the 
9th of October, 1860, by 451 majority over Hostetler, and 
82 clear majority over both — Hostetler and Dixon. His politi- 
cal sentiments are Law and Liberty. Believing it is now clearly 
his duty to act with the Republican party, and though he is for 
peace if possible, is in favor of maintaining the Union at all haz- 
ards. If any field should open up for an honorable compromise 
he is disposed to yield just concessions in adjusting the present 
National difficulties — standing by the Constitution as it was framed 
by our fathers. Post office address — Mitchell, Lawrence county, 
Indiana. 



106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



HENRY FEAG1.ER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DEKALB COUNTY. 

J Mr. Feagler was born in Warren county, State of Ohio, May 
24th, 1816 ; and had the honor in his infantile days — in common 
with a great many others who first saw the light of heaven in the 
West — to be rocked in a sugar trough. In 1819, his father re- 
moved to Montgomery county, in the same State, and settled on 
a piece of heavy timbered land. As soon as young Feagler was 
able to work he was set to picking brush, his brother, Joshua, now 
one of the most prominet farmers and citizens of DeKalb county, 
doing the chopping. His time, until 19 years of age, was taken 
up by hard labor in summer, and in winter, freezing, and learn- 
ing a little alternately in a log school house. He retained his 
own wages, and by economizing the pittance received for cutting 
wood by the cord and splitting rails by the hundred, he succeeded, 
in the course of time, in accumulating a sufficient sum to bring 
him to Indiana, and in September, 1836, he located in the Coun- 
ty of DeKalb, and entered 120 acres of land. During the winters 
of 1836-'7, he worked for Mr. Wesley Park, and assisted in erect- 
ing the first saw-mill in the county. Mr. Park being appointed 
by the Legislature a Commissioner to locate several of the roads 
in Northern Indiana, employed Mr. F. to assist him. During 
this trip he experienced some unadulterated backwoods life, wa- 
ding through streams, cookinghis own victuals, and sometimes suf- 
fering from hunger. On one occasion the raft on which the party 
were crossing Elkhart river, sank with them when in the middle 
of the stream, shipwrecking their little stock of provisions. On 
the evening of this accident, the party reached Augusta, the then 
county seat of Noble county, and found two deserted cabins in 
the place, and learned that it was three miles to the next house. 
The party held a consultation at this town, and came to the con- 
clusion that they were in a "confounded bad fix." Some flour, 
salt and potatoes were found in one of the deserted cabins, and 
Mr. F. was appointed chief cook by acclamation. He soon pre- 
pared a supper, not so good as ho has since partaken of at the 
Bates House, but one that was grateful and luscious to hungry 
men. After retiring, the crowd discovered a very important his- 
torical fact — that the principal inhabitants of the place were mus- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 107 

quitoes ; and that they contemplated war on the camp ; and one 
of the company (Miller) made the announcement that Uncle 
Sam's road locators were involved in a muket-o'-war. The water 
also was ascertained to be teeming with insects so large as to be 
readily seen with the naked eye by torch-light, whereupon Miller 
pronounced it to be living water, and invited the company to par- 
take freely. After having helped to locate and cut out several 
roads in the counties of DeKalb and Noble, and erect a number 
of log cabins in the former county, late in the fall of 1837, Mr. 
F. returned to Montgomery county, Ohio, and attended school 
during that and the following winter. In 1839, he married, and 
in 1846, again made DeKalb county his home, and settled near 
Auburn, where he now resides. Prior to the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, Mr. F. was a Democrat, but believing that party 
to have abandoned its former creed touching slavery in the Ter- 
ritories, he left the organization, and on the nomination of Col. 
Fremont, worked in that campaign and in every subsequent one 
for the success of the principles of the Republican party. His 
opposing candidate in the October election, 1800, was Mr. Bush- 
rod Catlin, now deceased, and one of the most prominent and in- 
fluential Democrats in DeKalb county, aind ftither-in-law to the 
late Hon. R.J. Dawson, formerly a member of the Indiana Legisla- 
ture. On receiving his nomination, and making his speech of 
acceptance at'the Court House, in Auburn, Mr. F. remarked, that 
"just twenty years previous to that day he had helped to fell the 
first tree on the site occupied by the Court House." Mr. F. is a 
self-made man, and an evidence of what persevering industry may 
accomplish. Is a kind and courteous gentleman, and an honest 
and unflinching Representative — firm in his integrity to the prin- 
ciples of justice, and the rights of his constiuents. In personal 
appearance, Mr. Feagler is quite youthful, notwithstanding he is 
in his 44th year. This hale, hearty, healthy look, he conceives, 
is the result of his strict habits of abstinence — never having taken 
a chew of tobacco, smoked a cigar, or drank a drop of liquor in 
his life. Post office address — Auburn, DeKalb county, Indiana. 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ALLEN T. FLEMING, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DUBOIS COUNTY. 

Mr. Fleming was born in Crawford county, Indiana, Novem- 
ber 20, 1820. Resided in Dubois county fifteen years. In poli- 
tics he is Democratic — not an extreme partisan, but always sus- 
tained the political organization to which he belongs with an un- 
faltering devotion, believing its principles essential to the wise 
government of the country. In his party he is looked up to for 
counsel when the advice of prudent and discreet men is needed to 
insure victory in the field and success after the smoke of battle 
has passed away. He enjoys a popularity at home as merited as 
it is unlimited; and as a member of the House, wields a quantum 
of influence that speaks him the man of talent, worth and indus- 
try. By occupation Er. F. is a farmer; and is never better suited 
than when in the midst of waving crops and lowing herds. He 
is a careful and thrifty husbandman, and the characteristics that 
have attended him through life, are industry, reliability,' a strict 
regard for truth, and a dispositition to perform a kind action to- 
ward his fellow creatures as often as they merit it and their ne- 
cessities come under his notice. His education is respectable, 
and, taking into consideration the limited means afi"orded him in 
youth, is highly creditable to his habits of perseverance, industry 
and studiousness. In the canvass of 1860, his opponent was Mr. 
John Able. This is his first term. Post office address — Ditney 
Hill, Dubois county, Indiana, 



JOHN L. POBD, 

representative FROM JACKSON COUNTY. 

Mr. Ford was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, February 
8th, 1818, and is a son of Lemuel Ford, who for a long time was a 
Col. in the United States Army, and was distinguished for his 
gallant bearing and bravery in the Mexican War. Mr. Ford com- 
pleted his professional education at the Medical College of Louis- 
ville, Ky., during the sessions of 1839-40. As a doctor, he is em- 
inent, and no practitioner in his county ever met with more uni- 
foTm success, or was more popular as a kind and attentive physi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 109 

cian. The profession, however, does not agree with him — his 
health not being equal to the laborious duties of his calling. He 
has taken a lively interest in polities for the last twenty years, 
and has been a member of the General Assembly three terms — 
in the sessions of 1847-8 and '61. In the first contest his oppo- 
nent was Hon. Andrew Robinson. In the second he had no op- 
sition. In the third election he was opposed by the Rev. Clair- 
boru Wright. In politics he is an unwavering Democrat, and 
works with an untiring zeal for the success of the party — no labor 
being too arduous for him to undertake when the interests of his 
party is at stake. As a member of the House he is indefatigable 
in his labors, and has been the author of many enactments that 
have redounded to the interests of the State. At home he en- 
joys a degree of personal popularity acquired by but few men; and 
in his neighborhood he enjoys the universal confidence of all who 
are favored with his acquaintance. His deportment is affable and 
gentlemanly; and his kindness of heart is a subject of remark 
among his friends; and wealth, if it was his, would be applied as 
freely to relieve the wants of others as to provide for his own ne- 
cessities. In all the transactions of life he is governed by strict 
integrity and honorable purpose that is not transcended by even 
those who profess to follow the strictest rule of ethics. As a friend 
he is as unvariable as the laws that govern his existence ; and al- 
though ever ready to vindicate himself against the insinuations or 
assaults of his enemies — he is magnanimous even towards them. 
Such a man as Dr. John L. Ford, the Representative from Jack- 
son, than whom a nobler spirit never entered a political contest, 
nor enjoyed honorable position conferred because it was merited. 
Post office address — Seymour, Jackson county, Indiana. 



NELSON PORDYCE, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM BOONE COUNTY. 

Mr. FoRDYCE was born in Canada East, December 25th, 1811. 
His parents emigrated to Morgan county, Indiana, in 1812, where 
he resided until 1884, and then engaged in the capacity of making 
and vending machinery and agricultural implements. In this 
business he continued sixteen years, visiting Kentucky, Tennessee; 



110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Missouri and Illinois, at the end of which period he settled in 
Indiana, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the year 1848 
he went to Missouri, and located in Lawrence county, at Spring- 
field. He remained in this place three years, and returned to 
Floyd county, Indiana, and settled on a farm near New Albany, 
on which he remained two years, and then moved into the city of 
New Albany, and engaged in promiscuous trading in connection 
with farming. He remained in the city about two years, at the 
end of which time he moved to Boone county, Indiana, and com- 
menced clearing up a farm. On tliis farm he still resides. He 
never attended any other than a common school, but being gifted 
with an active mind, suffered no chance of mental improvement to 
escape without profit to himself. He was never married. He is 
a Republican in politics, and ardently attached to the cause. He 
is an active, thinking, working man, and in whatever he engages, 

it is with a will. His opponent was Marvin, Esq., over whom 

lie was elected by a majority of 168 votes. This is his first term 
in any legislative assembly. Post office address — Lebanon, Boone 
county, Indiana. 



JAMES F. FRALEY, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM FOUNTAIN COUNTY, 

Mr. Fraley was born in Highland county, Ohio September 
29th, 1811. At the age of fifteen years both his parents died, 
and thus he was left to battle with the vicisitudes of life alone, 
which he did nobly and manfully. Soon after this event he emi- 
grated to Champaign county, in his native State, in which county 
he remained three years, and then removed to Fountain county 
Indiana, where he made his home one year. He then traveled 
for five years, during which he visited many places of note fn the 
country, and then settled on a farm in the county which he now 
represents. On this farm he resided about eleven years, and then 
removed to Newtown, in the same county, and engaged in the 
practice of medicine, and farming. His professional education 
was procured without any assistance from others, and considering 
that he was left penniless, this was no ordinary task. In this 
undertaking he was discouraged by no adverses of fortune, but 



BIOGRAPHICAI< SKETCHES. Ill 



pressed on — turning neither to the right nor the left — until he 
had consummated the grand idea of his ambition — the attainment 
of a medical education. His general reading, too, is not confined 
to a small number of volumes, but extends through the produc- 
tions of the best authors. When not engaged in attending to 
professional calls or prosecuting his researches in the books, he 
is actively engaged on his farm, working with his own hands, and 
superintending the labors of others. On the 22d of February, 
1849, he was married to Mrs. Sarah Duncan, of his county. In 
politics Mr. F. is a Republican, previous to the organization of 
which party he acted with the Democracy. Mr. F. had served 
his fellow citizens in several township offices previous to his nom- 
ination for the officce of Representative, in which he pleased his 
constituency so well that they determined to honor him with 
something higher in the roll of office holding; and accordingly, 
in July, 1860, a Convention of his party placed him in nomina- 
tion for the position he now so honorably and efficiently fills. 
His opponent was F. J. Glasscock, a Democrat of influence, and 
high standing as a citizen, over whom he was elected by a 
majority of 54 votes. Mr. F. is a good physician, an excellent 
farmer, a thorough and careful legislator, a kind neighbor, and 
a gentleman whose acquaintance once made, will always be appre- 
ciated. Post office address — Newtown, Fountain county, Indiana. 



GEORGE W. FRASIER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM KOSCIUSKO AND WABASH COUNTIES. 

Mr. Frasier was born in Noblesboro, Herkimer county, New 
York, July 12th, 1824. In 1835 he accompanied his father's 
family to Huron county, Ohio, and remained there until Decem- 
ber, 1845. He then came to Indiana, and on the 27th of Sep- 
tember, 1848, married Miss Mahala, daughter of Tyra W. Bray, 
of South Bend. Mr. F. was brought up to the occupation of a 
farmer, in which business he engaged until 21 years of age, and 
th'^.n turned his attention to school teaching, and continued in 
that occupation until about the time of his marriage in 1840. 
He then commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. T. S. 
Stanfield, of South Bend, and after close application for the space 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of two and a half years, he was admitted to practice in Api'il' 
1850. In the month of May of that year he removed to La- 
Grange Center, in LaGrrange county, and opened an office for the 
practice of his profession, remaining there until December, 1853, 
when he removed to Warsaw, Kosciusko county, his present place 
of residence. He enjoys a good practice as an attorney, and the 
confidence of his fellow-citizens as a man. As a lawyer Mr. F* 
excels in the profession. His study of the standard authors while 
preparing himself for the Bar, was indefatigable ; and since his 
admission every hour not devoted to active business has been oc- 
cupied in enriching his mind from those inexhaustible sources of 
legal learning, the text books of the celebrated law writers of 
England America. His efforts have not been entirely directed, in 
the practice, to the accumulation of money — one great object be- 
ing to make himself an ornament to the profession he had selected, 
in which laudable determination he has been eminently successful. 
In forensic discussion he is excelled by few members of the 
Indiana Bar. He enunciates in a full, clear, musical tone ; his 
language is opportunely chosen ; his manner engaging, and his 
points made with a truthful earnestness that carries conviction to 
the minds of all who hear him. Politically Mr. F. was raised 
under the influence of Whig principles, and up to the dissolution 
of that party acted in concert with its men and its measures. On 
the death of Henry Clay, whom he justly regarded as one of the 
most talented and gifted statesmen that the United States ever 
produced, and whose memory he cherises with almost feelings of 
veneration, he attached himself to the Republican organization, 
and has ever since been one of its most active and industrious 
members. An acknowledged leader — always fortified with sound 
argument, he was ready, when occasion required, to take the 
stump in defence of those principles which his couvictions of 
right told him were just. He has never been a noisy, or even 
what many would regard as a professed politician, yet in the affairs 
of his county. State and nation, he has always taken a lively in. 
terest, and long before the dark clouds that hung over the politi- 
cal horizon at the opening of the session of the Forty-first Gene- 
eral Assembly, he had warned his fellow-citizens of the rock against 
which the ship of State has drifted, and in patriotic language had 
foreshadowed the dread consequences that threatened our country 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 113 

and her institutions. In the month of June, 18G0, a convention 
of the Republicans of Kosciusko and Wabash counties, held at 
Liberty Mills, Wabash county, Mr. F. was put in nomination for 
joint Representative for these counties. His opponent was Jo- 
seph Marshall, a leading and influential Democrat of Wabash 
county, over whom he was elected by a majority of over 3,000 
votes. As a Representative he is characterized by the same traits 
of industry that have marked his path through life. Being com- 
pelled to rely entirely upon his own resources from an early age, 
it became necessary for him to use economy in all his business 
transactions, and while his time durintr working hours was occu- 
pied in manual labor, the hours that others gave to amusement 
and recreation found Mr. F. intent over his books, eager to ob- 
tain an education that would fit him to enter upon a course of le- 
gal study. That object attained, and elected as a Representative 
his industry does not forsake him; he is still untiring in his zeal 
prompt and efficient in the discharge of every duty, and ever 
watchful of the interests which are confided to his care. Such a 
man is George W. Frasier, whom to know best is to admire most. 
A self-made man, a talented and honest Representative, a true 
friend, a bright star in his profession, the favorite of his constitu- 
ents, and an ornament to the Forty-first General Assembly of the 
State of Indiana. Post office address — Warsaw, Kosciusko 
County, Indiana. 



THOMAS GIFFORD, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM FRANKLIN COUNTY. 

Mr. GiFFORD was born on the 2d day of December, 1816, in 
Yates county. New York. Mr. G.'s parents are both dead. His 
motlier died when he was in his fourth year, and three years 
afterwards his ftither was removed by death. He had one bro- 
ther, Levi Gifi'ord, upon whom death has laid his hand; and now 
3Ir. G. has no paternal relatives that he knows of He has, on 
his mother's side, an uncle and aunt yet living — the Rev. John 
Morgan, of Clarksburg, Decatur county, Ind., and Mrs. Ruth 
Aldcn, of Jackson township. Dearborn county, this State, the mo- 
ther of Hon. Alvin J. Alden, of the same place, who has been 

8 



114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

twice elected to the General Assembly of Indiana, from Dearborn 
county. By profession Mr. G. is a physician and surgeon, and 
enjoys an extensive practice in Franklin county; and few practi- 
tioners have had the satisfaction of seeing their labors crowned 
with more uniform success, or enjoy a more flattering profes- 
sional popularity. He graduated at the Ohio Medical College, in 
March, 1845. In the political field he commenced taking an ac- 
tive part in 1854, and has been a member of the Indiana Legis- 
lature three sessions, including the present one. Was first elect- 
ed in October, 1858, and opposed by Dr. Biddinger; and the sec- 
cond time in 1860, having for his opponent Esquire Harvey. Dr. 
Biddinger made the contest as an independent candidate, and 
left the county soon after his defeat. Mr. G. is a conservative 
and consistent member of the Democratic party; and as a Repre- 
sentative is distinguished for his untiring efforts in working for 
the best interests of his county and the State. He was married 
May 31st, 1842, to Miss Catharine Case, daughter of Henry and 
Ann Case, late of Metamoras, Indiana, and is now blessed with 
an interesting and dutiful family — three boys and six girls. Truly 
Mr. Gilford is surrounded with all the elements of happiness, pro- 
fessional reputation and success, an unsullied fame and the friend- 
ship and esteem of his neighbors. Post office address — Laurel, 
Franklin county, Ind. 



JOSEPH GOAR, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE COUNTIES OF HAMILTON AND TIPTON. 

Mr. GOAR was born in Monroe county, Virginia, October 8th, 
1808, and emigrated to Indiana in October, 1835, and settled in 
Hamilton county in December of the same year. In 1841 he re- 
moved from Hamilton to Tipton county, where he still resides- 
Mr. G., like many members of the present General Assembly, fol- 
lows the honorable occupation of farming, and in industry and 
thriftiness is excelled by few. A common school education was 
all that he could secure in his early years in the way of learn- 
ing; but his leisure hours on the farm have been occupied in 
gleaning from the page of history the great events of his own 
and other countries. In this way Mr. G. has so stored his mind 
with a knowledge of the world and men, that in point of intelli- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 115 

gence he stands in the front rank of his compeers in the House. 
He was a Democrat until 1854, when he identified himself with 
the Republican party. This is his first term in any legislative 
body. His opposing candidate was Mr. John Bolton, an inde- 
pendent Democratic Republican. His majority was 1,007, which 
speaks much in his favor as a popular citizen and public man. 
He is a faithful Representative, and watches the affairs of his con- 
stituency with a jealous care. He was elected, and served twice 
as Associate Judge in Tipton county. His last term was not 
quite served out, as it expired by constitutional limit. Post office 
address — Berlin, Clinton county, Ind. 



IRA GLANTON GROVER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DECATuR COUNTY. 

Mr. GrROVERwas born in Union county Indiana, December 26th, 
1833. In 1839 his father, Ira Grover, removed to Greensburg, 
Decatur county, where Ira G. remained, devoting his time to va- 
rious pursuits, until 1852, when, arriving to the age of nineteen^ 
and having saved up some means, he entered the Sophomore 
Class in the Indiana Asl)ury University, at Greencastle, at which 
institution he graduated in 1856, bearing off the highest honors 
of his class. He then devoted himself to teaching for a few months, 
after which he commenced the study of the law. He was nomi- 
nated by the Republicans of Decatur county, last year, for Rep- 
resentative in the State Legislature, and was elected by a majority 
of 371 — the highest majority for the State ticket being only 325. 
At the instance of the present Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, he was placed at the head of the Committee on Education — 
a place never before conferred on one so young and inexperienced 
(this being his first session) in the ways of legislation, but one 
in which his labors since have shown that the confidence was 
not misplaced. As the anatomist is not wont to take a living man 
for a subject, neither would the biographer choose for his, one just 
entering upon public life. Biography is defined to be a history of 
the life and character of some particular person ; and taken in its 
general sense, Mr. Grover has but little biography to write, though 



116 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

he has the intellectual ability and untiring industry to create the 
material for many such as are often found upon the shelves of our 
bookstores. His life is but just begun, and his character but now 
being formed ; and the writer, who has known him intimately from 
his childhood, must needs find a paucity of material for making 
up anything like an interesting sketch, yet in justice to his subject 
he must add, that in all the relations of life, Mr. G. has proven him- 
self energetic, industrious and persevering. In whatever he has 
engaged, he has been equal to the task ; and though but a young 
man, no member of the Forty-first General Assembly evinced 
more decided talent. There are those whose experience is greater, 
and whose ability is more fully developed, but none who labor 
more assiduously for the interests of their constituents. At home, 
as a man, he enjoys the confidence of his fellow-citizens, in an 
eminent degree, and is justly regarded as a kind friend and faith- 
ful public servant. Post office address — -Greensburg, Decatur 
county, Indiana. 



WILLIAM HALL, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM GRANT COUNTY. 

Mr. Hall was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, February 
2Sth, 1814, In 1820, his parents emigrated to Fayette county, 
Indiana, where Mr. H. resided until 1835. He then went to 
Milton, Wayne county, and remained there until the spring of 
1839, in which year he settled in his present place of residence, 
Fairmount, Grant county, Ind. He, like many other members of 
the present Legislature, is indebted to that talismanic institution 
— the common school — for the ground-work of his education; a 
safe basis to build on, providing the scholar has sufficient incli- 
nation to study, and a capacity to comprehend what he subse- 
quently reads — both of which good qualities Mr. H. possessed in 
an eminent degree. Consequently he succeeded in procuring an 
education far above mediocrity, and which renders him a practi- 
cal and intelligent public servant. As a member of the House, 
he is noted for the clearness and soundness of his views on State 
policy, and for the vigilance and industry he brings into requisi- 
tion when measures of importance are before that body to be pas- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 117 

sed upon. In 1825, he was apprenticed to a tanner and courier, 
Mr. A. B. Conwell, of Connersvillo, whose business he learned, 
but did not continue in longer than 1852, in which year he em- 
barked in the business of farming and other pursuits — laboring 
industriously as an agriculturalist in clearing away the forest and 
gathering into his granaries the abundant crops which his thrifty 
husbandry produced, lie has never been regarded as a very ac- 
tive nor aspiring politician; yet has been elected twice to a place 
in the General Assembly of the State. In all matters political 
he is candid and honest, and labors more for the success of the 
principles he professes, than to secure public honors for himself; 
and the public places he has filled to the entire satisfaction of his 
constituents, were conferred upon him by the people, because 
they well knew his fitness for the same, and not on account ol 
their being sought by the recipient. His present political faith 
is that of the Kepublican party, prior to the organization of which 
he was a Whig. His opponent in 1858, was Dr. Ayres, (Dem.) 
over whom he was elected by near 300 majority. In 18G0, he 
contested the field with Mr. B. F. Dunn, (Dem.,) and succeeded 
by about the same majority ; thus showing that his course, during 
his first term, met the approbation of those who elected him. He 
was married in 1836 to Miss Hannah J. Stanficld, of Hunts- 
ville, Madison county, Ind. Post office address — Grant, Grant 
county, Indiana, 



SAMUEL HARVEY, 

JOINT REPRESENTATIVE FROM LAPORTE COUNTY. 

Mr. Harvey was born near Richmond, Wayne county, Ind. 
August 31st, 1825. In 1834, he was taken by his parents to La- 
porte county. He has always lived on a farm, and is a thorough, 
practical agriculturalist. He has also been an advocate of improve- 
ments in the mode of farming — favored the introduction of supe- 
rior stock, and in every way labored to bring about a system of 
farm labor that would produce an increased number of bushels 
on a given quantity of land. In this way he has done more for 
the permanent interests and prosperity of the State than he could 
have effected in the political field. Agriculture is the basis of all 



118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the wealth in the country; not a dollar of capital could exist with- 
out its aid. It demands of its followers an industrious, laborious 
life; and it is that labor that freights every vessel that cleaves the 
ocean's foam. If its products do not constitute all our commerce, 
its patronage of mechanics and manufactures gives life to every 
avenue of trade, and thus, directly or indirectly, furnishes or sus- 
tains all the prosperity we know as a nation. These facts, well 
known to Mr. Harvey, have stimulated him in his laudable ef- 
forts to reclaim agriculture from the rude and slovenly system fol- 
lowed with such pertinacity nearly all over the West. His op- 
portunities for educational improvement were such as farmers' 
boys generally possess — a few months schooling each winter. — 
His mental culture, however, was not neglected; and all the short- 
comings of the common school were more than compensated for 
in the studies which he diligently pursued at home during the 
hours that were spared to him from labor; and if he did not suc- 
ceed in embellishing his mind by an acquirement of higher 
branches, he secured a practical education, and has continually 
added to it the rich funds of information to be gleaned by the 
careful student from the useful books that are now within the 
reach of every one. In politics he is a Republican — an honest, 
zealous, working member of the party. During the existence of 
the Whig party — to which organization he formerly belonged — 
he was an enthusiastic admirer of that truly great man, Henry 
Clay, regarding him as one of the wisest statesmen and purestpat- 
riots the nation ever produced. As a legislator, Mr. H. is un- 
assuming and unpretending ; and devotes himself to the legisla- 
tion demanded by the interests of the State with an energy and 
industry that does not admit of making long and useless speeches, 
that are paid for by the State at such enormous prices. Among 
his constituents, with whom he is very popular, his course in the 
House upon all the important measiares of the session, has been 
emphatically indorsed. At home he is recognized as being one 
of the best farmers in the county; and as a reward for his honor- 
able conduct and gentlemanly bearing, enjoys the respect and 
confidence of his neighbors to the fullest extent. Post office ad- 
diess — Laporte, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 119 

RICHARD M. HAWORTH, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM UNION AND PAYETTE COUNTIES. 

Mr. Haworth was born in Union county, Indiana, October 
14th, 1821. A few years previous to that date his parents moved 
from Jefferson county, Tennessee, to this State. Mr. H., in his 
boyhood, was an inmate of that celebrated institution — the com- 
mon school — which was presided over in the early settlement of 
Indiana, by men whose erudition was not as profound as that of 
Newton, nor as varied as that of John Quincy Adams, and who 
dispensed knowledge in homeopathic doses that were sure not to 
make the recipient mad with learning — yet they were the lords of 
literature in their day. There Mr. Haworth tasted, but he did 
not drink deep, of the Pierian Spring ; and at the age of twenty- 
one years he enrolled his name for scholastic honors on the records 
of Beech Grove Seminary, in his native county; while there, he 
added so much to his former acquirements, that he left the insti- 
tution with an excellent and practical education, which he has en- 
riched since be extensive reading in historical, scientific, and lite- 
rary works. On leaving the seminary he taught school two win- 
ters, and then engaged in farming, in which occupation he has 
remained until the present time— toiling with his own hands, 
scattering the scanty seed and reaping the abundant harvest. In 
politics he learned, and became a devotee of the Democratic creed, 
in which he believed with all his mind, and labored for with all 
his might, until at length he came to believe that its tendencies 
were calculated to extend and perpetuate the institution of Amer- 
ican slavery, then he withdrew from the Democratic organization, 
and in 1854, he acted with the anti-Nebraska party. In 1856, 
when the Republican party was fully organized, he entered its 
ranks, and has worked for the success of its principles with a 
zeal that knew no tiring, and with a hope that would admit of no 
failure, till victory mantled upon its banners. On the 19th of 
April, 1860, at a joint convention of the Republican party of Fay- 
ette and Union counties, held at Connersville, he received the 
nomination of Representative. He was opposed by Geo. Wilson, 
Esq., a man of much personal popularity, and one over whom it 
was no easy task to achieve a victory in the political field; never- 
theless the Republican majority was doubled, and 3Ir. Haworth 



120 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

was elected by 370 majority. In the business affairs of life, jVIr. 
H. is honorable, prompt, industrious and energetic, esteemed by 
his neighbors and popular in his District. He is a good Repre" 
sentative, and devotes himself to the duties of his position with 
an unfaltering application that proclaims his industry as a legis- 
lator; and guards the interests of the State with a watchful eye 
that admits of no corruption creeping into the measures of public 
policy passed upon by the House. He was married, December 
31st, 1857, to Miss Caroline A. Brown, a native of the county in 
which he lives. Post office address — Liberty, Union county, 
Indiana. 



JOHN HAYES, 

^ REPRESENTATIVE FROM MADISON COUNTY. 

Mr. Hayes was born February 14th, 1828, in Chester county, 
Pennsylvania. At the age often years, was brought to Indiana^ 
by his parents, who settled in Fall Creek township, Madison coun- 
ty, on the farm that now constitutes thehomeof Mr. H. At twenty 
years of age he was deprived, by death, of an affectionate and prov- 
ident father. This circumstance not only deprived him of the 
counsel and support of a kind parent, but made it his duty to 
provide for a widowed mother and a large family of younger 
brothers and sisters, who all looked to him as their protector. — 
After struggling against the vicisitudes of life, and breasting the 
onerous duties and labors incumbent upon him as the main sup- 
port of the family, for many years, in 1856, he entered the polit- 
ical arena, and was nominated in April last over the Hon. An- 
drew Jackson, and elected on the 9th of October over Joseph B. 
Lewis. This is his first term in the Indiana Legislature. Mr. 
Hayes is not an ardent politician, and has not, like many others, 
continually solicited office, as though it was an heir-loom in the 
family. His nomination was not sought by himself, but was the 
free-will offering of his political friends as a reward of merit. — 
Mr. Hayes still has an onerous duty to perform — the selecting of 
a wife. Post office address — Pendleton, Madison county, In- 
diana. 



BOGRAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 121 



HORACE HEPFREN, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WASHINGTON AND HARRISON COUNTIES. 

Mr. Heffren was born in Dryden, Tompkins county, New 
York, May 27th, 1831. At the age of 17 years he commenced 
in life for himself, teaching school at $14,00 per month and board. 
His education was commenced in the Common Schools of his na- 
tive Statate ; and afterwards, by his own efforts, he was enabled to 
avail himself in part, of an academical course. Possessed of a 
vi<j;orous intellect and robust physical constitution, no obstacles 
were sufficiently potent to check his determination to procure a 
liberal education ; but seemed only to nerve him to greater eflbrts. 
In October, 1850, he came to Indiana, and taught school in 
Brownstown, Jackson county. In 3Iarch, 1851, he went to Salem 
Washington county, and began the study of the law in the office 
of the Hon. C. L. Dunham and J. M. Lord. (The former gentle- 
man, late Secretary of State, is an uncle of Mr. Heffren.) Soon 
after he was admitted to the Bar, and was not long in obtaining 
an extensive practice in Washington and adjoining counties. 
When barely eligible on account of his age, in 185G, he was nom- 
inated by the Democracy of Washington county as a candidate 
for Senator, and electected over Joseph Loughmiller — indepen- 
dent Democrat. He served three sessions, lacking two days, and 
resigned. In 1860 he was again nominated, almost unanimously? 
by the Democracy of Harrison and Washington counties, and elected 
joint Representative without opposition. For so young a man as 
Mr. HeiFren, this is c[uite an honorable career, and nothing but 
indomitable energy, perseverance, laudable ambition, and talentof 
the first order, could have effected so much in so short a time- 
No man in the State is possessed of more energy and industry,and 
no man has labored more indefatigably to make a competency 
and an honorable name; and in procuring the latter, he has been 
peculiarly successful. When in the Senate he was noted for the 
amount of labor he performed — nb Senator having the advantage 
of him in this regard. As a member of the House in the pres- 
ent session, he brings to the discharge of his duties the same en- 
ergy and industry that characterized him when a Senator. No 
member of the House is more zealous in protecting the interests 



122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



of the State ; and no man in that body enjoys a larger share of 
influence, or can do more towards stamping the impress of his 
views on the legislation of the State. As a lawyer he has been 
successful to a degree seldom witnessed. This is owing in a great 
measure, to his close application to the books when a student, 
But his honest and prompt attendance to the legal business en- 
trusted to his care, has been the main-spring of his professional 
success. In private life his affability and kindness are proverbial 
-:— true to his friends and generous to his enemies — his manly 
course has secured him hosts of political admirers and warm per- 
sonal friends. More distinguished honors await him in the future, 
should he continue in the political field — for with him to try is 
to win. The writer of this sketch would here remark that Mr. 
Heffren was supported by the Democracy of the Fortj -first Gen- 
eral Assembly, at the opening of the session, for Speaker, in op- 
position to Mr. Allen, a compliment flattering to his ability, and 
an honor never before sought to be conferred upon one so young 
in the history of the State. Post office address — Salem, Wash- 
ington county, Indiana. 



1 >^ I 

JOHN A. HENRICKS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Henricks was born in Pendleton county, Kentucky, Au- 
gust 10th, 1811. He is a member of the Republican party. By 
profession, he is a physician, and received his medical education 
in the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati ; and in the office of Dr. 
Garten, in Champaign county, Ohio. In 1813 he removed, in 
company with his parents, to the latter place, and to his present 
place of residence. South Bend, St. Joseph county, Ind., in 1832, 
and engaged in the practice of his profession. After practicing 
three years, he engaged in the mercantile business until 1858, in 
the meantime serving one term in the Indiana House of Repre- 
sentatives from St. Joseph county. He was elected as a Whig at 
the August election in 1837. In the fall of 1838 he became a 
contractor on the Illinois and Michigan canal — completed his 
contract of two and a half miles in 1840, and then became inter- 
ested as an active partner in a contract to improve the Rapids of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 123 



Rock River, 111., so as to make slack water navigation in said 
river by the construction of a lock and dam at the Rapids, ten 
miles below Dixon's Ferry. This contract was not completed, the 
State of Illinois having failed to provide the necessary funds. In 
1841, he engaged in the mercantile business at South Bend, con- 
tinuing so engaged until 1849, and in connection therewith, in 
184G, erected a flouring mill with three run of stone, which wag 
subsequently destroyed by fire. This mill he immediately re- 
built on a more extensive scale. Shortly after this he visited Cal- 
ifornia, traveling across the Plains. Returning to South Bend, 
he continued the mercantile business until 1S52, when he engaged 
in railroad work; and was one of eleven who contracted to furnish 
all the materials and complete the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad 
from the river bank opposite St. Louis, across the State of Illi- 
nois to the Indiana State line ; but did not become an active part- 
ner in the prosecution of this work, being at the time engaged in 
the construction of the culverts and bridges on the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railroad, between the Calumet and Kankakee rivers. Since 
rebuilding his mill, in connection with his present partner, Wm. 
Miller,'he has been exclusively engaged in the milling and flour- 
ing business. He was elected as a Republican to the present Leg- 
islature by a majority of 755 votes over his competitor, A. E. 
Drapier, editor of the St. Joseph County Forum. Post office ad- 
dress — South Bend, St. Joseph county, Indiana. 



SILAS M. HOLCOMB, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM GIBSON COUNTY. 

Mr. HoLCOMB is a son of Hosea Holcomb, who was a native 
of North Carolina, and who married Miss Mary Lee, of Virginia, 
in the year 1811, and soon after emigrated to Warren county, 
Ky., and there he was drafted as a soldier to serve through the 
war of 1812-13. Soon after the close of that war he emigrated 
to the Indiana Territory, and settled in what is now Gibson county, 
where Silas M. Holcomb, his eldest son, was born on the 2Sth of 
March, 1820. He was educated in the common se'iools of the 
country, which at that time were very common ; but by his ia- 



124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

duatry and studious habits while attending them, and at home, he 
managed to acquire a sufficient education to enable him to com- 
mence teaching school at the age of twenty years, in which occu- 
pation he continued for eight or nine years, as a means of earn- 
ing a support, and at the same time to afford himself opportuni- 
ties to read and study with a view to the improvement of his own 
education. Knowing by experience the great disadvantages un- 
der which the children of Indiana were placed by the want of an 
efficient school system, he always took a lively interest in all meas- 
ures calculated to improve the condition of the schools of the 
State. In 1848, when, by an act of the Legislature, the Free 
School question was submitted to a popular vote of the people of 
the State, he took the stump and canvassed his own, and several 
adjacent counties in favor of that proposition, which was adopted 
by a very large majority. The next year, 1849, he was nomi- 
nated by the Democratic party of Gibson county, as a candidate 
for the Legislature. His competitor was Col. J. W. Cockrun, 
(Whig) who had represented that county in the preceding session. 
They made an efficient and well contested canvass, which resulted 
in the election of jMr. Ilolcomb by a majority of 110 votes, an 
unusually large majority for that county. Mr, Holcomb's election 
was the first instance in which a native of Gibson county was 
selected to represent its interests in the State Legislature. On 
the 27th of February, 1852, he was married to Miss N. A. Ralstonj 
of Boonvillc, Warrick county, Indiana, and immediately engaged 
in the honorable avocation of farming on the same farm where he 
was born, and where he still resides, strongly attached to the spot 
of his nativity. After he commenced farming he took no part in 
politics until 1854. At that time the Maine Law mania and 
Know Nothingism were sweeping over the State like a tornado, 
and he then entered the canvass, and made some telling speeches 
against those parties which contributed to their defeat in his 
county. In 1856 he took an active part (on the Democratic side) 
in the Presidential campaign which resulted in the election of 
James Buchanan. In 18{>0 he was again nominated by the Dem- 
ocracy of the county as their candidate for the State Legislature. 
His competitor in this contest was William Davis, Esq., a Repub- 
lican, who came within 33 votes of being elected to the same 
position in the canvass preceding. A more exciting, determined 



BIOOUAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 125. 

canvass than this was never witnessed in the county, and which 
resulted in the election of Mr. Holconib by a majority of 263 
votes. During the session he was an active member of two Stand- 
ing Committees — Education and Roads and Highways — and also 
on Six Special Committees. The great question during the time 
occupied by the session of the Forty-first General Assembly was, 
"Shall the Union be preserved?" Believing, as he did, that the 
Union of the States was of far more importance than party organ- 
izations, he held that it was the duty of all true patriots to bring 
all barren creeds and party platforms and sacrifice them on the 
altar of a common country; and that there was no remedy for the 
exisiting troubles but in mutual concession and compromise. To 
this end he would support the Crittenden, Border State, or any 
other proposition that would tend to a fair and honorable adjust- 
ment of the existing troubles. Of his merits as a faithful, hon- 
est and efficient public servant, the best testimonial that can be 
adduced is his record, which is untarnished by a single disrepu- 
table act; and that he is duly appreciated as a citizen and a repre- 
sentative by the voters of Gibson county, the majority by which 
he was elected, is the best evidence that can be offered. Post of- 
fice address — Haubstadt, Gibson county, Indiana. 



THEODORE HORTOW, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WELLS AND BLACKFORD COUNTIES. 

Dr. HoRTON is an unwavering Democrat, having voted for al} 
the Democratic candidates for the Presidency since 1844. He 
was born in Morris county, New Jersey, October, 28, 1823. In 
1833 his father, Elijah Horton, moved to western New York, and 
settled in Alleghany county. While here, up to his nineteenth 
year, he attended the common schools of the country in the win. 
ter and worked with his father in the summer. At seventeen 
years of age he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. John 
Gilmore, of Nunda ; prosecuting his studies during the summer 
and teaching school in the winter. This course of unremitting 
toil was necessary, as he had to rely upon his own energies alone. 
In 1844 Mr. Horton, Sr., settled in Oswego, Kosciusko 
county, Indiana. His son accompanied him and taught school in 
Oswego and in Goshen, Elkhart county, one year, when he visi- 



126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



ted Fort Wayne and completed his medical studies under the in- 
struction of Dr. Charles E. Sturges. In 1S4G he attended the 
Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and commenced the practice 
of medicine the same year at Huntertown, and in 1847 fixed his 
permanent place of residence at Bluffton, Wjjlls county. He was 
married October 23, 1846, to Mary Rhoades. Dr. Horton was 
elected to the Senate in 1852, from the district composed of Hun- 
tington and Wells counties. He drew the short term. In the 
canvass which resulted in his election to the present Greneral As- 
sembly his opponent was Dr. C. S. Melcheimer, a llepublican. 
Dr. H. has always worked strenuously and zealously for the suc- 
cess of his party, and besides his services in the Legislature, has 
held several offices in his own county. Dr. Horton has strug- 
gled from his youth to attain an education and profession, and 
unaided, has secured both, and what is more, a competency for 
himself and family. Post office address — Bluft'ton, Wells county, 
Indiana. 



THOMAS J. HOWARD, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM CLARK COUNTY. 

Mr. Howard was born in the State of Vermont in the year 
1802, and with his parents emigrated to Clark county, Indiana, in 
1816, where he has ever since resided. Mr. H. has no college or 
seminary to look back to as the means of his education. The 
common log school house of primitive times was the only insti" 
tution of learning to which he had access. There are many self- 
taught men, however, who are better qualified for public stations 
than graduates who have wasted many youthful days in endeav- 
oring to slight the lessons that wealth has procured them the 
privilege of learning. Their information, besides being more 
pratical than theoretical, is more clearly impressed upon the mind, 
because it has been learned better. What practical men do know, 
they know much better than any classical scholar can tell them. 
To this class of scholars Mr. Howard belongs peculiarly. When 
a boy, no day nor no hour that could be spared from labor, was 
neglected as a means of improving his mind; and many a night 
at a late hour, he might have been seen with a book in hand, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 127 

croucliing in the chimney corner, there learning the fate of na- 
tions by the light of a log fire. In this way he acquired an 
educatiou, and fitted himself for the discharge of the duties that 
devolved upon him in manhood in the legislative halls of the 
State. He is a Democrat of the Douglas school, and for the Un- 
ion now and forever. He served in the Legislature as a Repre- 
sentative from Clark county in the sessions of 1844-5, and was 
re-elected in October, l86d. His opponent was Mr. John Pound, 
Esq., of Charlestown, Clark county. His majority was 292. — ■ 
Mr. H. has devoted less time to politics than to agriculture, still 
he has been a close observer of political events and movements, 
and looks with regret upon the present distracted state of affairs, 
so ruinously affecting our once happy country. He was married 
in 1824, to Miss Elizabeth Helmer, of Plarrison county, Indiana. 
Post office address — Jeffersonville, Clark county. Indiana. 



I «^ > 

SAMUEL HUDSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM LAGRANGE COUNTY. 

Mr. Hudson was born in the State of New York, in the year 
1815, and emigrated to Lagrange county, Indiana, in 1846, where 
he has made his home since that time. He obtained the rudi- 
ments of an English education in the common schools of his na- 
tive State; and this was attended with many difiiculties — irregu- 
larity in attending school on account of the interference of other 
duties, incompetency of teachers, &c. These obstacles, however 
did not prevent Mr. II. from prosecuting his studies, which he 
did at home, and much of his reading was done at nights* 
by the uncertain and flickering light of a log fire. Having been 
raised a farmer, and having much labor to perform both in win- 
ter and summer, close application to his books was imperatively 
necessary in order that he might prepare himself for the active 
duties of life. In his adopted county he is much esteemed as a 
citizen, and enjoys a large share of popularity. He has served 
two terms as Commissioner of Lagrange county, in which capac- 
ity he distinguished himself by the untiring vigils he kept 
over the interests of the county; and earned the reputation of 
being an active, careful, and trust-worthy public servant. In pel- 



128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

itics, he is a Republican; and is noted among the members of 
that party for his wise and practical views on all matters of public 
policy; and the position he now occupies was conferred upon him 
in consideration of his devoted attachment to the principles of the 
Republican organization and his conservative course ever since 
his identification with that party. This is his first term in this 
or any other General Assembly. His opponent in the canvass of 
1860 was Mr. John Kromer, a native of Pennsylvania, over whom 
he was elected by a majority of 913, a fact that sufiiciently attests 
his popularity at home. In 1836 he was married to Miss Harriet 
Esther Clark, of Wayne county, New York. Post ofiice address 
—Lima, Lagrange county, Indiana. 



MOSES JENKINSOlSr, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM ALLEN COUNTY. 

Mr. Jenkinson was born November 5th, 1810, in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and resided in that State and Kentucky until 1838, when 
he settled in Indiana, living alternately in Jay and Allen counties, 
the last sixteen years of which, however, he has resided in the lat- 
ter county. Mr. Jenkinson is a lawyer by profession, to the duties 
of which he devotes himself with much industry. He is favored 
with a large and increasing practice — the result of his legal ability 
and prompt and honorable manner of attending to his professional 
business. He is a close student, and among members of the bar 
enjoys a I'eputation every way worthy of his character. In polit- 
ical matters he wields an extended influence at home, being ver}' 
popular among his constituents, and the Democratic party of his 
county has not a more zealous or faithful advocate. Asa citizen he 
enjoj's the unlimited confidence and esteem of his neighbors. In 
the House he is noted for the deep interest he takes in the bus- 
iness thereof, and for his untiring efforts to advance all measures 
calculated to subserve public interests. He consumes no time in 
manking speeches designed for huncomhe, but applies his entire 
energies to legislation ; and his votes upon all measures of impor- 
tance fully vindicate his views upon State policy. As a careful 
and vigilant guardian of the best interests of the State, he has no 
superiors in that body. Post office address — Fort Wayne, Ind, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 120 

ANSON HURD, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WHITE AND BENTON COUNTIES. 

Mr. HliRD was, in the original organization of political parties, 
an old line Whig ; but when that party ceased to have an exist- 
ence, he blended his political fortunes with the more modern po- 
litical theory of Republicanism. He was born in Middlesex coun- 
ty, Connecticut, December 27th, 1824. Mr. C. studied Medicine 
and graduated at Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 
1849. In 1852, he emigrated to Benton county, Indiana, and 
settled at Oxford, where he has resided ever since. In 1860 
he became a candidate for the Legislature, and was elected over 
Dr. Theo. Stewbel, by 242 majority. Mr. Hurd is an active 
and industrious member of the House. He is what may be termed 
a working member — ever alive to the welfare of the State and the 
interests of his constituency. Post office address — Oxford, Ben- 
ton county, Indiana. 



D. M. JONES, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM VERMILLION COUNTY. 

Mr. JONES was born on the 15th day of February, 1828, in the 
County of Vermillion and State of Indiana. His ftither, Lewis 
Jones, was a native of the State of Delaware, and emigrated at a 
very early day, and settled on the banks of the Big Vermillion 
river, in the above named county, then an almost entire wilder- 
ness. Being a blacksmith by trade, he carried on that branch of 
business, in connection with farming, for he soon cleared up a 
large and extensive farm. At an early age his father put him to 
the trade of blacksmithing, at which he continued for some years," 
a portion of the time, however, being spent in laboring upon the 
farm, and in attending the common district school of the neigh- 
borhood, which at that day was of the rudest character. At his 
trade he exhibited great marks of ingenuity, and soon became 
thoroughly acquainted with and master of the business. In his 
studies, too, at school, he made such rapid progress in the few 
branehfes then taught, that he soon ranked as the leading spirit 
9 



130 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

among his class mates, and gave evidence of a mind of more than 
ordinary brilliancy; so much so, that his father was induced to 
bestow upon him a liberal education. He accordingly entered 
Wabash College in the year 1844, taking a regular colle- 
giate course, where he r'^mained for four years. Here, as well as 
in his boyhood at the district school, he made great proficiency, 
and was the acknowledged leader and able debater of the different 
societies, always defending his positions with marked ability. — 
Having determined in his own mind upon the profession of the 
law, he accordingly, in the year 1848 entered the office of Col. 
Henry S. Lane and Samuel C. Wilson, of Crawfordsville, Ind., as 
a student, and in the latter part of the year 1849, he was admit- 
ted to the Bar, as a regular practitioner. In 1850, he attended 
the Indiana University at Bloomington, and graduated in the 
law with distinguished honors. In 1851, he located at Newport 
the county seat of Vermillion, where he has since resided. — 
Asa sound lawyer and an able advocate, he stands pre-eminent, 
On the first day of January, 1855, he married Miss Ellen Collett, 
daughter of the Hon. Stephen S. Collett, late of the county of 
Vermillion, who died at the city of Indianapolis about eighteen 
years ago, while a member of the Senate. Mr. Jones is a Repub- 
lican in politics, and made an effective and vigorous canvass in the 
memorable campaign of 1856. He also engaged heartily in the 
canvass of 1860, was unanimously nominated by a convention of 
his own party, and elected by an increased majority of his fellow 
citizens, to the position which he now holds, and is filling 
out at the capitol of his State, with that enthusiasm and ability 
which has characterized his whole life. Post oflSee address — 
Newport, Vermillion county, Indiana. 



OLIVER T. JONES, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WAYNE COUNTY. 

Mr. Jones, the son of Levi M. and Mary Jones, was born in 
Kanawha county. State of Virginia, September 10th, 1810. His 
Great G-rand-father and mothers were natives of Wales, in 
the West of England, who emigrated to this country and set- 
tled in Eastern Virginia, while the colonies were under the Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain, and where bis Grandparents and his 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 131 

motlier were born. His Grand-fathers, Jolin Jones and Joseph 
Thomas, both served through the Revolutionary war, and were 
pensioned during their subsequent lives. His Grandfathers both 
emigrated to Kanawha county, Virginia, about the year 1782, 
where his father was born, and where he remained until the year 
1814, when he emigrated to the Indiana Territory, and settled in 
what is now AVayne county. Ten years previous to his emigra- 
tion to this State, in the year 1804, he was married to Miss Mary 
Thomas, his death occurring in 1823, in Wayne county, where the 
subject of this biography has ever since resided. On the 17th of 
March, 1838, he was married to Miss Mary, daughter of John 
and Judith King, who emigrated from Kentucky to Wayne 
county, Indiana, in the year 1828. Mr. Jones spent the earlier 
part of his life in the occupation of teacher; but after his marriage, 
at the age of twenty-six, he turned his attention to agriculture. 
Long before he attained his majority, he espoused the political 
faith of the old Whig party, the principles of which he zealously 
advocated until its dissolution, when, having no hesitancy as to 
his duty, politically, he attached himself to the Republican organi- 
zation, and has been, and still is, one of its staunchest and most 
reliable members. With the interests and measures of that party 
he is fully identified, and in the advocacy of its principles no 
man evinces a more decided and determined honesty of purpose 
As a Representative he is firm in his adherence to the principles 
of right, and the interests of those whose suJBfrages elevated him to 
a seat in the Forty-first General Assembly of the State of Indiana; 
and the writer of this sketch takes pleasure in according to him 
a prominent place in the history of the many good, noble, gen- 
erous and honest men and politicians who have taken their first 
political degrees in Wayne county. Postoffice address — Geuter- 
ville, Wayne county, Indiana. 



132 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

W. H. KENDRICK. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM MARION COUNTY. 

Mr. Kendrick was born in the State of Tennessee, December 
21st 1815. In the year 1821, he removed from his native State, and 
sought a home in Ohio, and remained there until the year 18o7, 
when he permanently settled in the State of Indiana. In early 
life he was identified with the Jackson Democracy, and still en- 
tertains a high admiration for the profound statesmanship, noble 
bearing and patriotism of that distiriguished statesman and sol- 
dier. At the commencement of the Mexican war he changed his 
party affiliations in view of what he conceived to be the tenden- 
cies of his party to the extension of slavery. From that period 
up to the time of the organization of the Republican party, he 
sustained no particular party relation, often voting for men of the 
diflferent parties, as the occasion or circumstances seemed to dic- 
tate as being proper. He came into the Republican party at the 
time of its organization, and has acted with it ever since. Mr. 
K. has implicit confidence in the principles and policy of his party, 
and believes that the Union and Constitution are safe when en- 
trusted to the wisdom of its councils and the patriotism of its 
statesmen. Mr. Kendrick is a member of the Moravian, or United 
Brethren order of Christians, and occasionally acts in the capac- 
ity of clergyman. His profession is that of medicine, having 
graduated at Cincinnati in 18-48. This is his first term in the 
General Assembly. He is a married man. Post office address — 
Indianapolis, Indiana. 



DENNIS B. KITCHEN, 

representative prom WARRICK COUNTY. 

Mr. Kitchen was born in Bullitt county, Kentucky, June 
10th, 1820, and when two years old was brought by his parents 
to Spencer county, Ind., in 1822. His profession is that of medi- 
cine, to the study of which he devoted himself in his early manhood 
with much diligence for a considerable length of the time, and 
until he had made himself a first class physician. After having 
finished his medical studies, he practiced in Barry county, Mis- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 133 



souri, during the years 1846-47-48, with a degree of success as 
highly satisfactory to his patients as to himself, and earned an 
enviable reputation for proficiency in his calling and kindness 
and attention in his practice. His occupation now is farming, 
which he pursues with an industry and enterprize truly commen- 
dable, and which have made him a first class agriculturalist. As 
a citizen, he has identified himself with all the reforms and im- 
provements calculated to give his county rank as one of the first 
in the State. In politics he is a firm and unfaltering Democrat 
of the Jeft'ersonian school, conservative in his views, and slow to 
indorse new governmental measures, which so often prove to be 
mere vagaries, conceived in the diseased brain of politicians whose 
object is self-aggrandizement rather than the good of the people. 
His first Presidential vote was cast for James K. Polk, in 1844 ; 
and in every subsequent Presidential election up to 1856, his 
votes were given to the nominees of the Democratic party, for the 
principles of which organization he has labored for many years 
with a zeal entirely unselfish — for the welfare of the entire party, 
and not for his own personal advancement in the career of office- 
holding. In the canvass of i860 his opponent was Dr. Patterson, 
a man of some talent and much energy, over whom he was elected 
by a respectable majority. As a law-maker, he attends strictly 
to the duties devolving upon him — always on the alert in caring 
for the interests of his county and the State, and never avoiding 
any labor or responsibility in defense of what he conceives to be 
correct State policy. His legislative record is one to which he 
can point with pride, and which his constituents can, with propri- 
ety, indorse in the most unreserved manner. Post office address 
— Polk Patch, Warrick county, Indiana. 



C. B. KWOWLTOl^, 

V 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM CASS COUNTY. 

Mr. Knowlton was born in Genesee county, New York, June 
20th, 1827, and remained in that State until 1844, when he came 
to Indiana and settled at Logansport, Cass county. His political 
education, which commenced in childhood, was of the strictest 
Democratic faith ; and his principles in this regard will probably 



134 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



neverundergoany change, as he is of the firm opinion that the policy 
of his party constitutes the only governmental system calculated to 
perpetuate the prosperity of the country. His first vote was given 
for Cass and Butler, in 1848. He has taken a deep interest in the 
political questions that have agitated the country since he hecame 
a voter. In 1858 he was nominated by the Democratic party for 
Representative, and elected by an increased majority on the Dem- 
ocratic vote, serving in the extra session of 1858 and the regular 
session of 1859. He was again nominated in 18G0, as a Douglas 
Democrat, for Representative, and elected by a small majority over 
the Republican candidate, although the county went Republican- 
There were also 130 uncompromising Breckinridge votes in the 
county, which lessened the chances of his election. He is op- 
posed to coercion, from principle, believing as he does, that a Re- 
publican Government cannot be maintained on any other princi- 
ple than that of compromises. This is obvious from various rea- 
sons — our vast territory, extending through almost every clime, 
our almost innumerable branches of industry, and the varied pro- 
ductions of the soil, are prolific in giving rise to interests that fre- 
quently come in contact, and produce dissensions tht^t cannot be 
settled in any other manner. In politics he is conservative, and 
disposed to cling to the national landmarks established by the 
fathers of the Republic. As a Representative he devotes himself 
with much industry to the business of legislation, and is ever 
careful and vigilant in guarding the numerous interests of the 
State. At home he is deservedly popular with the people, and 
is known as an enterprising and thorough business man, always 
active in promoting that which has for its object the building up 
of any particular local or State interest. He is engaged in carry- 
ing on a foundry and machine shop, where he manufactures steam 
engines and all kinds of agricultural implements. This establish- 
ment he purchased when he was twenty-one years of age, and has 
conducted it ever since. He drives his business with an energy 
that continually brings its reward to himself, and dispenses em- 
ployment and prosperity to many others who perform the manual 
labor. Post office address — Logansport, Cass county, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 135 



CHARLES LADS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DEARBORN COUNTY. 

Mr. Lads was born in Bedford, France, January 10th, 1825. 
His parents left the sunny clime of France and emigrated to the 
United States in 1827, when Charles was but three years old, and 
settled in D-earborn couuty, -Indiana; where Mr. L. has ever since 
resided, industriously following the occupation of a fixrmer. His 
education, though sufficient to enable him to acquit himself in a 
creditable manner as a Representative, is limited ; his advantages 
for improvement being those afforded by the common schools, 
which were, in the early settlement of this State, rather poor. In 
1854 he first identified himself with political affairs, and in the 
spring of that year was chosen Assessor of the township in which 
he lived, and continued for several years to discharge the duties 
of that office in such manner as to meet the approbation of the 
people who honored him with the place. Gaining friends and 
popularity in that position, in June, 1860, he was nominated by 
the Democracy of Dearborn county as a candidate for Represen- 
tative, in opposition to Mr. Joseph Brant, over whom he was 
elected by 450 majority. This is his first term in the Legislature, 
and as a Representative, although making no pretensions to ora- 
tory or superior qualifications as a statesman, is a careful and 
vigilant public servant, having an eye single to the interests of 
his county and .the State. lu May, 1850, he married Miss Isa- 
bella Hudson, daughter of Christopher Hudson, Esq., of Dela- 
ware county, Indiana. Post office address — New Alsace, Dear- 
born county, Indiana. 



HIGGINS LANE, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PUTNAM COUNTY. 

Mr. Lane was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, July 
9th, 1812, and settled in Putnam county, Indiana, in 1844. He 
is one of those men who are the architects of their own fortunes ; 
and the acquirements he possesses are the result of his own in- 
dustry and enterprise. He is a brother of Col. Henry S. Lane, 



136 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

late Governor ot Indiana, and now United States Senator. He is 
a farmer — not one of those whose hands iTcver touch the plow- 
handle, yet who deliver lectures on the subject of agriculture — 
but a working, practical tiller of the soil, who knov>'s how to pre- 
pare his fields, and the proper time to sow and plant. There are 
many such men in the present General Assembly, and Mr. Lane 
is prominent among this worthy class of legislators.. They are 
safe men, when the money of the State is to be voted away, for 
they know by experience that money is not produced by magic, 
and that all kinds of capital is the result of labor. Mr. L. has no 
desire to continue in political life — preferring the quiet and more 
profitable life of an agriculturalist. Prior to 1849 he held several 
minor offices, in which he rendered entire satisfaction to his con- 
stituents, and in that year he was elected to a seat in the Legisla- 
ture. He ran as a Whig candidate, and was the only man on the 
ticket who escaped defeat. From that time up to 18G0 he filled 
several township offices with credit to himself, and in a manner 
satisfactory to the people. In that year he was elected a second 
time as Representative. This time he was elected as a Republi- 
can, and had for his competitor one of the most popular men in 
the county — Mr. Samuel Colliver. Mr. Lane is now in his 49th 
year. Although he has been singularly successful in discharging 
all the official duties and obligations devolving upon him in the 
various positions he has held, if his own desires are consulted, he 
will, at the closQ of the present session, retire from public life en- 
tirely, and leave the race for office to others, who can better ap- 
preciate its uncertainties and perplexities. Post office address — 
Greencastle, Indiana. 



NATHANIEL LEE, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM VIGO COUNTY. 

Mr. Lee was born in Warren county, Ohio, in the year 1807, 
in which county he resided until the year 1884, when he removed 
to Vigo county, Indiana, his present place of residence. Mr. L. 
has not the advantages of a collegiate education, and owes all his 
literary acquirements to his own industry. He is a farmer, to 
which calling he has devoted more attention than to politics. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 137 



This is his first term. He was Judge of Probate in Vigo county 
one term under the old Constitution of the State. Was first 
elected to the General Assembly in October, 1860. Vigo county 
is entitled to two Representatives. Mr. Lee was one of the Re- 
publican nominees and Mr. McLean, of the House, was one of 
the Democratic nominees ; and the result is that that county is 
represented by one Democrat, (Mr. McLean) and one Republican, 
(Mr. Lee.) The election was close. Mr. Lee has' made poli- 
tics a secondary matter, preferring agricultural pursuits to the 
uncertain and unsatisfactory career of the politician. He is a 
practical, working farmer, deservedly popular at home, and is a 
careful and wise legislator. Mr. Lee was married in Vigo county 
in the year 1834, to Miss Eliza Ilawley. Post office address — 
Riley, Vigo county, Indiama. 



DANIEL D. LIGHTNER, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM HOWARD COUNTY. 

Mr. LiGHTNER was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, May 
21st, 1810. At the age of fifteen years his f\ither, John Light- 
ner, emigrated to Fairfield county, Ohio, and about one year after 
his settlement in Ohio he died. Some three years after this event 
Daniel D. moved to Coshocton county in that State, where he re- 
mained until he attained the age of thirty -two years. During 
this time 3Ir. Lightner occupied his time in various branches of 
business — such as school teaching, stone cutting, clerking in a 
dry goods store, &c. In the year 1835 he was married to Miss 
Polly, daughter of Ebenezer Sea^vard, of Coshocton county. In 
the year 1832 he moved to what was then Clinton county, Indiana, 
but now Howard, and settled on a tract of land, densely timbered, 
and at once set about clearing up a farm. He remained on this 
farm about three years, and then removed to Russiaville, at that 
time just laid out. At this place he still resides, engaged in the 
mercantile business. In this he continued until 1855; then turned 
his attention to the occupations of mason and plasterer, for which 
he had fitted himself ia his younger years. He followed this 
business with assiduity in the summer season, and taught schoo 
during the winter months. He remained thus engaged up to the 



138 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

time for the Dieeting of the First General Assembly of Indiana, 
and then took his seat in that body. Mr. Lightner was educated 
under AVhig influences, and during the existence of that party 
was an ardent and devoted member. Upon the dissolution of the 
Whig ])arty he did not confine himself to any political organiza- 
tion, but reserved the right to vote for those whom he deemed best 
suited in principles and qualifications for the various offices to be 
filled. In 1852, when Van Buren was a candidate for the Presi- 
dency on the Buffiilo platform, he exercised the right to vote for 
that gentleman. In 1848-9 he had voted with the Democratic 
party, but when the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed in 1854, and 
the Republican party organized, he became an ardent, working 
and active member of that party ; with which organization he 
continues to act. In the month of April, at the primary election, 
(which system of nominating is adopted in Howard county) he 
received the nomination for Representative, and was elected by a 
majority of 500 votes. His opposing candidate was H. B. Ha- 
vens, an old line Clay Whig; who fijst announced himself an in- 
dependent candidate, but afterwards was endorsed and voted for 
by the Democracy of Howard county. He his took seat for the first 
time in any legislative body in the Indiana Legislature on the 
10th of January, 18(j1, and as a Representative is industrious, 
faithful and efficient. All through his life Mr. Lightner has pur- 
sued the different avocations in which he engaged with an indus- 
try that knew no tiring, and his business transactions have been 
characterized by a promptness and honesty, that precluded the re- 
motest shadow of suspicion, and established for him the reputa- 
tion of a gentleman in every sense of the word. Post office ad- 
dress — Ilussiaville, Howard county, Indiana. 



LEANDER McCLURG, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM CLINTON COUNTY. 

Mr. McClurg was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in the 
year 1830, and emigrated, with his parents, to Indiana, in 1839. 
He has been a resident of Tippecanoe and Clinton counties ever 
since. The circumstances under which Mr. M. labored in youth 
in the pursuit of knowledge, were peculiarly discouraging, and it 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 139 

was no ordinary amount of perseverance that enabled him to ob- 
tain even a respectable education. However, in that respect he 
has signally triumphed. A great part of his early life was spent 
in the daily performance of the hardest and roughest of manual 
labor; and while engaged on a farm at from twelve and a half to 
fifty cents per day, and in making shingles and hauling them to 
Lafayette, he devoted all his evenings to study. At the age of 
twenty years, by dint of untiring industry, and an application to 
his books that was only interrupted by the rounds of his daily 
labor, he saccceded in so far mastering the elements of an En- 
glish education as to enable him In embark in the calling of a 
teacher, which he followed sis months. He had, however, from 
his seventee,nth year, devoted some of his leisure hours to the 
study of law, and was licensed to practice by Judges Naylor and 
Biddle at the age of twenty-two years. He then commenced the 
practice of his profession at Frankfort, in which he succeeded in a 
manner gi-atifying to himself and friends. At this place, in 1854, 
he became connected with the Crescent, a weekly newspaper, and 
as a member of the corps editorial has earned the reputation of a 
ready and forcible political writer. He first engaged actively in 
political affairs in 1854, and in 1856 was elected Prosecuting At- 
torney for the district composed of the counties of Carroll and 
Clinton, in which capacity he acquitted himself as a thorough 
lawyer, and to the satisfiiction of those who conferred that office 
upon him. In polities he is a Democrat, and this is his first term 
in the Legislature. In the canvass of 1860 his competitor was 
Judge 'Edwin Winslow. Post office address — Frankfort, Clinton 
county, Indiana. 



WILLIAM EDWARD McLEAlST, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM VIGO COUNTY. 

Mr. McLean was born on the 12th day of January, 1831, at 
Frederick City, Maryland, and came to Indiana with the family of 
his grand mother, in the fall of 1836. He graduated at the In- 
diana State University in July, 1849, and graduated in the Law 
Department of the same Institution, in jMarch, 1851, commencing 
the practice of the law in the city of Terre Haute immediately af- 



140 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



terwards. In September, 1851, he became the Editor of the Terre 
Haute Journal, then the orpan, and only Democratic paper in the 
Seventh Congressional District. Mr. M. was connected with this 
paper as its sole Editor until the foil of 1855, a period of more 
than four years. At the general State election in the fall of 1852, 
before he attained the age of 22 years, he was elected, by the Dem- 
ocratic party. Prosecuting Attorney for the 6th Judicial Circuit, 
the duties of which office he discharged for one term. In this 
capacity he gave ample evidence of his fine legal acquirements and 
his peculiar fitness for the office. In 1856 he was elected State 
Senator from the District composed of the counties of Vigo, Clay 
and Sullivan, by about 1,850 majority over his Republican oppo- 
nent, Dr. Eli Bowyer. In the sessions of 1857-58 and '50, Mr 
McLean was the youngest member upon the floor. In 1860 he 
was one of the Democratic candidates for Representative in Vigo 
county, and although the Republicans succeeded in carrying the 
county by near 200 majority, he was elected, leading the field by 
a handsome vote. In the Legislature he devoted himself directly 
ta the business of the session, and in the performance of his duties, 
sustained his reputation as a man of superior talent. He is still 
unmarried, which must be from inclination, and not from neces- 
sity, as he is a particularly good looking man. Post office ad- 
dress — Terre Haute, Indiana. 



C. G. MOODY, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JASPER, NEWTON AND STARK COUNTIES. 

Mr. Moody was born in Cortlandt county. New York, October 
16th, 1832. His father was a respectable and thrifty farmer, and 
Mr. M. until his fifteenth year, divided his time between agricul- 
tural labor and attending the common schools and academy. He 
was peculiarly apt at his lessons, and left most of his school-mates 
far behind in the contest for literary honors in the schools he at- 
tended. When fifteen years of age his health would not per- 
mit of his engaging in the rough labors of the farm, and he 
repaired to the city of Syracuse, in his native State, and engaged 
as assistant book-keeper in a forwarding and commission house 
belonging to his father and brother-in-law. He remained in thi? 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 141 

situation one year and a half, during- which time his health was, 
in a great measure, restored. He then commenced reading law in 
the ofiice of Messrs Hillis & Morgan, of Syracuse, and remained 
at his studies under their preeeptorship nearly four years. In 
the fall of 1852 he came to Xew Albany, Indiana, and was so for- 
tunate as to secure a partnership with that distinguished lawyer, 
Randall Crawford. In this connection he continued five years, 
at the end of which time (fall of 1858) his failing health induced 
him to try a residence on the high, rolling prairies of Jasper 
county. In the summer of 18G0, without solicitation or any ef- 
fort on his part whatever, he was nominated by the Eepublicans 
for Representative, and elected in a district that never, since the 
organization of parties in the State, failed to send a Democrat to 
the Legislature. This was a triumph in the commencement of 
his political career that must ever be a source of satisfaction to Mr. 
Moody. It speaks volumes in favor of the man — it proclaims his 
character as a man of the strictest integrity and most unsullied 
honor. The achievement of breaking down the Democratic party 
in that Gibraltar of the organization, and establishing the prece- 
dent of electing a Republican Representative — in the short space 
of two years, is a task that none but a gentleman of the first order 
of talent could compass. And talent is not the only requisite to 
the accomplishment of a political feat of this character. It re- 
quires a degree of popularity that cannot be obtained unless the 
champion is gifted with all the characteristics of the high-toned 
and honorable gentleman. In his legal acquirements Mr. Moody 
is inferior to very few members of the Indiana Bar, and excelled 
by none of his age. As a member of the House he is distin- 
guished for close application to his duties and for the efficient 
performance of the same. He is gifted with rare abilities, and is 
destined in the future to figure conspicuously in the public affairs 
of the State and Nation. As a man he is generous and kind, 
more disposed to forgive than condemn, and is possessed of a heart 
full of noble impulses, and that always feels for other's woes ; 
and a hand that never fails to extend the relief dictated by the 
heart. Such a man is Mr. C. Gr. Moody; and more — in every vir- 
tue he excels the degree accorded to him in this sketch. Post 
ofiice address — Carpenter's Creek, Jasper county, Indiana. 



142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

J. A. MOORMAN, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM RANDOLPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Moorman was born in Ricliraond county, North Carolina 
August 19tb, 1820, and came, with his parents, to Indiana, in 
1822, settling in Randolph county, in the same neighborhood 
where he now resides. By profession he is a minister of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, but the occupation he relies on for 
support is that of farming. His advantages for acquiring an edu- 
cation, were such as the common schools aiForded in the early set- 
tlement of the West. His literary attainments, however, are su- 
perior, and they were secured by his own exertions. Mr. M. has 
been married twice. The first time to Miss Nancy Hiatt, of Ran- 
dolph county, who died in May, 1847. He was married again in 
May, 1849, to Miss Mercy Shaw, of Wayne county. Us is a Re- 
publican in principle, but never took an active part in politics until 
the canvass of 1860, when his party selected him as their candi- 
date for Representative, and he commenced and made an active 
and vigorous canvass. His opponent was Mr. John Key, over 
whom he was elected by a majority of 876 votes. He acquitted 
himself well as a Representative, and was recognized in the House 
as an able and industrious member of that body. Previous to the 
organization of the Republican party he acted with the " old Lib. 
erty party." 



WILLIAM G. MOSS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM GREENE COUNTY. 

Mr. Moss was born in Washington county, Indiana, November 
19th, 1822, and his parents removed to Greene county about the 
year 1826. Most of his time has been spent as a tiller of the soil. 
Mr. M. never engaged with much zest in politics, though he has 
had somewhat to do with that perplexing science, having been 
twice elected to the ofiice of Sheriff of his own county, his first 
election occurring in 1856. In the race for legislative honors 
he was the regular nominee of his party, and was opposed by Mr. 
Armisted Owen. Like many others whose lot was cast in Indi- 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 143 



ana at an early clay, Mr. M. was denied tlie advantages of early 
education, but by close application and untiring study during the 
hours that he was exempt from the duties of his calling, qualified 
himself for the prompt and competent discharge of the duties con- 
nected with the several posts of honor conferred upon him by his 
constituents. He is one of the noble examples where young men, 
unassisted, alone, and surrounded by difficulties, have suc- 
ceeded in placing their feet upon the rounds of the ladder of fame- 
Like the great body of his party, he favors non-intervention by 
Congress in State or Territory, on slavery, but is willing to 
make any reasonable concessions calculated to preserve the Union 
and Constitution inviolate. * Mr. Moss is a Democrat, and is a 
member this winter for the first time. As a legislator Mr. M. is 
industrious and energetic, and commands a full share of confi- 
dence and influence in the body of which he is a member. Post 
ofiice address — Linton, Greene county, Indiana. 



JACOB MUTZ, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM SHELBY COUNTY. 

Mr. MuTZ was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, Octo- 
ber 11th, 1825. In 182- his parents emigrated to Montgomery 
county, Ohio, where he remained until he was twenty-one years 
of age. lie then came to Indiana and settled in his present place 
of residence. By trade he is a blacksmith, and loud and clear, 
night and duy, his strokes on the anvil rang out upon the air ; and 
many an evening, the traveler, as he passed by, saw the cheerful 
glow of his forge and the showers of sparks as they flew in count- 
less numbers from l)eneath the stalwart blows of his sledge. This 
business he reliu'iuished, and turned his attention to agriculture, 
as a less laborious, more lucrative and pleasant occupation. In 
this calling he exercises a degree of industry not practiced by 
many farmers in Indiana. He is not of that class who never 
have time to do anything except sit on pine boxes in front of 
stores in the county seats, plying their jaws on tobacco and their 
jack knives on the boxes to which they are anchored. Neither 
does he belong to that class who always get done planting corn, 
harvesting, or any other piece of work, precisely at noon on Fri- 



i 



144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

day. There are thousands of them in Indiana; and nothing short 
of an interposition of Providence could induce them to perform 
any labor from that time until Monday morning. No, he is not 
of this order of agriculturalists; but a thrifty, judicious cultivator 
of the Western staples. In politics he is a Democrat of the Dou- 
glas school ; a firm and ardent supporter of that man and his 
principles. He was put in nomination by the Democrats of Shelby 
county, in May, and elected in October, 1860, over Hon. Cyrus 
Wright, a good citizen, fine lawyer and a consistent Republican. 
His majority was 248. This is his first term in the Indiana, or 
any other Legislature ; and has so performed the duties committed 
to his care as to receive the approbation of his constituents, and 
the confidence and respect of all the members of the House. He 
has filled several township ofiices in a manner that redounded to 
the interests of the township, and secured him much popularity 
among his neighbors. He was married to Miss Maria, daughter 
of Leonard Snepp, of Montgomery county, Ohio, December 7th, 
1847. Post office address — Edinburgh, Johnson county, Indiana. 



RICHARD M. NEBEKER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WARREN COUNTY. 

Mr. Nebeker was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, July 29th, 
1811. In 1823 he accompanied his father Lucas Nebeker, to the 
territory now embraced in Fountain county, in this State for the 
purpose of raising a crop preparatory to a final removal of the 
family from Ohio, which was done in the fall of that year. They 
settled in what is now Troy township. Fountain county, some two 
or three years previous to its organization. At the organization 
of the county, Lucas Nebeker was elected one of its Associate 
Judges, and served seven years, in the meantime, conducting his 
farm to which occupation Richard M. was brought up, and in 
which he continued until 1832. In that year he engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits in Covington, the county-seat of Fountain, in 
which he continued nntil 1840. During this time, and while 
merchandising he was married to Miss Lucinda, daughter of 
James Long, Esq., of Fountain county. In September, 1839, his 
fiither died. At the happening of this event, he closed up his 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 145 



mercantile business, as near as practicable, and retired to a farm 
in that county, and engaged in agriculture, continuing in that 
business until 1844. In that year he became rather unsettled in 
his business pursuits ; and in 1850 went to Warren county, his 
present place of residence, opposite Covington, to superintend the 
erection of the Draw Bridge over the Wabash river at that place, 
which is acknowledged to be the best bridge on the river. This 
work occupied his entire attention for near three years. The 
bridge was built bp a Company chartered by an act of the Legis- 
lature in 1850, of which company John Adamson, Richard M. 
and George Nebeker, and such others as they might associate 
with them, were made members. The management of this bridge 
is still under the immediate supervision of Mr. Nebeker, which 
in connection with agriculture, engages all his time not taken up 
in representing the interests of his fellow citizens in the General 
Assembly. In 1840 Mr. Nebeker was supported by the Whig 
party of Fountain county as their candidate for Sheriff, when 
there was a Democratic majority of 400, the result of which was 
that he was beaten by only about 180 votes. In this contest Mr. 
N. would have been successful but for pledges made by a large 
number of whigs to support Mr. Wm. R. Orr, an independent 
Democratic candidate. Had Mr. N. been inclined to dissimu- 
lation he would undoubtedly have been successful. In 1844 he 
was again a candidate and received the full vote of his party. In 
1851 Mr. Nebeker and Col. Bryant were the only whigs spoken 
of for Representative in Warren county, and on mutual agreement 
Col. Bryant declined, on the 4th of July, to be a candidate, leav- 
ing the race, as the friends of Mr. N. supposed, to him alone. Ar-- 
ranging his appointments the same day, he prepared to canvas^^ 
the county. On the 5th, the day following this agreement, Col. 
Bryant announced himself a candidate, when Mr. N. declined 
to run, leaving the contest to Col. Bryant and Col. Lucas, the 
Democratic candidate, the result of which was that Col. L. was 
elected.by a majority of sixty votes. Educated a Whig, Mr. Neb- 
eker, at the organization of the Republican party, became a mem- 
ber of that organization, and in 1858 was put in nomination for 
Representatives at the primary election, against C. B. White; and 
made the canvass against Robert A. Chandler, a Republican, who 
refused to submit his claims to the canveution, and over whom he 
10 



146 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

was elected by a majority of 138 votes. Serving in the special 
and regular sessions of 1858-9, with honor and distinction, he 
was re-nominated at the primary election in April, and elected in 
October, 1860, to a seat in the Forty-first General Assembly. His 
opponents at the nominating election were Dr. Abborn and I. U. 
Adams, Republicans who submitted their claims to the Conven- 
tion, the latter of whom, however, bolted afterwards, took the 
stump against Mr. Nebeker, and in favor of George W. Johnson, 
an independent Republican, while Dr. Abborn supported him 
manfully, and with energy and power, the contest resulting in the 
election of Mr. Nebeker by a majority of 321 votes. In all his en- 
gagements he has ever been a working man, and as a Represen- 
tative in the State Legislature, retains all his energy and in- 
dustry, and is one of the most active and diligent members of the 
House. Post office address — Covington, Fountain county, Ind. 



I 1^ > 



E. B. NEWMAN, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WAYNE COUNTY. 

Mr. Newman was born in Guilford county. North Carolina, 
September 1st, 1826, and settled in Wayne county, Indiana, in 
November, 1836. Mr. N., like most men who settled in the West 
at an early day, is the aichitect of his own fortune and educa- 
tional acquirements. At home, during the leisure hours that were 
spared to him from his duties, he secured a thorough English and 
classical education — an important auxiliary in public lil'e and in 
the practice of the law. In 1856 he engaged in the law busi- 
ness, having been previously admitted, at Centerville, Wayne 
county, and in a short time received a sufficient amount of busi- 
ness to require his undivided attention. Few lawyers have ap- 
plied themselves with more unremitting industry to their booksi 
and few have succeeded in a more complete mastery of that per- 
plexing science. He taught school ten years — from 18-46 until 
1856, having been previously a pupil two years under the precep- 
torship of Professor Hoshour, in the Cambridge City High 
School, of which institution Mr. H. was Principal at that 
time. In the House of Representatives he is an energetic and 
working member, and enjoys the confidence and respect of his peers 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 147 

in that body. He is a member of the Select Committee of Thir- 
teen, to which was referred a series of very importfint resolutions 
in rei;ard to the national troubles — ^introduced the first day of the 
session. He is also a member of the Committee on Federal Rela- 
tions, and on the Organization of Courts. Mr. Newman had al- 
ways been a devoted adherent of Whig principles, and was identi- 
fied with that party until 1854. On the advent of the Republican 
party he endorsed its principles, and worked for their success with 
a zeal that acknowledged no failure. He was elected to a place in 
the present Legislature without opposition, and this is his first 
terra. At home among his constituents, Mr. Newman stands high 
as a man, and is deservedly popular as a public servant. He was 
married in Henry county, Indiana, September 1st, 1847, to Miss 
Mary Ann Harden. Post oflSce address — Milton, Wayne county, 
Indiana. 



-H .M gg ij — »■ 



JAMES ORR, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM DELAWARE COUNTY. 

Mr. Orr was born February 25th, 1815, in the county of Ty- 
rone, Ireland, but was in his early youth brought by his father to 
this country in 1821. Resettled in 1839 on the" farm where he 
s'ill resides, in Delaware county, Indiana, three miles north of 
Selma, a station on the Indianapolis, Pittsburg and Cleveland 
Railroad. He was for five years a member of the' Delaware 
Board of County Commissioners. In 1852 he was elected 
to represent Delaware county in the Legislature. His principal 
opponent was Hon. Marcus E. Smith, over wliora he was elected 
by 71 votes. At the end of the term Mr. Orr returned to his 
farm with the determination never again to enter political life. 
He was, however, at the solicitation of his friends, induced to 
become a candidate for the Legislature in 1860, and was again 
elected, beating Dr. George AV. Gorst 727 votes. Mr. Orr is a 
farmer, and is in easy and independent circumstances. His lega 
learning is quite respectable. In politics he was a Whig, and 
done efi'ective service under the Whig banner until the death- 
stricken hand of the sage of Ashland could bear it aloft no longer. 
Yet even until it was the winding sheet of the gallant Harry of 



148 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the West, did he endeavor to bear it onward as the standard of 
political progress and reform. In 185G he supported John C. 
Fremont for President, and in 18G0 done effective service for 
Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Orr is a good debater; is kind and cour- 
teous to all, even to his most bitter political enemies; and al- 
though he is earnest, firm and zealous as a politician, yet he is by 
no means a partisan, and may be regarded as of that class of con- 
servative men who, although meddling but little in politics, taking 
no very active part in public affairs, may yet be considered as bet- 
ter friends to their country than to party. Post office address — 
Selma Station, Delaware county, Indiana. 



W. W. OWENS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM SULLIVAN COUNTY. 

Mr. Owens was born in Mason county, Kentucky, in April^ 
1828, and received the rudiments of an English education. His 
parents being in limited circumstances he had to labor very hard 
to secure the means of subsistence, to purchase books, pay his 
tuition, &c. To add to the difficulties by which he was already 
surrounded his father died when he was quite young, leaving him 
the task of supporting his widowed mother. But against all these 
embarrassments he struggled manfully, and in the end came off 
victorious. At the age of 18 he visited Maury county, Tennessee, 
and was about two years a student at Williamsport and Columbia, 
devoting his time to Latin, mathematics and the higher branches. 
In 1845 Mr. Owens settled in Bedford, Indiana, and engaged in 
the drug business, aided by Gusiavus Clark ; and subsequently 
was appointed Postmaster at that place under President Taylor 
and held the office for several years. In November, 1853, he was 
married to Miss Rebecca A. Crooke, an amiable and very intelli- 
gent young lady. In 1854 he was a candidate for the office of 
County Treasurer, and was defeated by the influence of Know- 
Nothingism. About that time, the Whig party being broken up, 
he commenced co-operating with the Democracy, with whoin he 
has since taken a decided, conservative stand. In 185G he re- 
moved to Sullivan, engaged in farming, and was nominated in 
August, by the Democracy, and elected in October over his oppo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 149 

nents — Patten, E-epublicau, and Onnsby and Griffith, Democrats, 
by 1,027 majority. Identified with the industrial interests of the 
whole country, and believing that extreme party men and meas- 
ures have done much to cripple the commerce, distract finances, 
and aggravate sectional antagonisms, the member from Sullivan 
favors compromise, and is willing to accept the Crittenden resolu- 
tions, or any other basis of adjustment that will restore peace to 
all sections, re-consecrate the Union of these States, and renew 
the fraternal ties made sacred by the blood and treasure of our 
fathers. Mr. Owens is more of the statesman and less of the poli- 
tician than many public men. and feels a deeper interest in the 
welfare of the country than in the success of the cherished 
schemes of any political party ; and if such men only had here- 
tofore been selected to fill the important offices of the country, 
the present national troubles would never have been known. In 
the House he is distinguished for his watchfulness of the public 
interests and the energy with which he labors for the good of the 
whole people. In his deportment he is kind and courteous, and 
by his gentlemanly bearing has won the confidence and esteem of 
his fellow members to the fullest extent. At home he is a public 
spirited and enterprising citizen, and no man in his county is 
more deservedly popular with the masses, or regarded with kind- 
lier feelings by his neighbors. Post office address — Sullivan 
Sullivan county, Indiana. 



MARCUS A. O. PACKARD, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM THE COUNTIES OP MARSHALL AND STARK. 

Mr. Packard was born in Lenawee county, Mich., July 21, 1834* 
His parents both dying when he was a small child, he was adopted 
into the family of his grand parents, on the paternal side, and 
came with them to Marshall county, Indiana, when that county 
was yet very new. He remained with ihem on a farm until his 
fifteenth year, when he entered the store of J. L. Westervelt, 
Esq., of Plymouth, as a clerk. He followed this avocation two 
years; when, not wishing to make the mercantile business the 
pursuit of his life, and having long had a secret and burning de- 
sire to accjuire an education, he left the store and entered an 



150 BIOGKAl'IIICAL SKETCHES. 

academy at Spring Arbor, Michigan, to prepare for college. Af- 
ter remaining here eighteen months, teaching during sracations, 
in 1853 he entered the Sophomore class of the Michigan Univer- 
sity, at Ann Arbor, and graduated June 25th, 1856, in regular 
course. He then entered the law office of Messrs. Baker & Wil- 
lark, of Adrian, Michigan, as a student- In the spring following 
he was elected Justice of the Peace in the village of Tecumseh, 
where he had made his home during his whole stay in Michigan. 
At this place he resided at the house of his uncle, Hon. P. R- 
Adams, to whose fatherly kindness, counsel and assistance, he is 
much indebted for his success in life. Shortly after this he 
entered a law office in Tecumseh, and pursued his legal studies 
under the direction of the Hon. C. A. Stacy, and in August of 
the same year was admitted to the bar in the city of Monroe, be- 
fore Hon. H H. C. Wilson, Judge af the Circuit Court. He was 
married on the 15th of September following to Miss Hattie M. 
Thompson, daughter of Judge Thompson, of Lyons, Michigan j 
and in the month of October settled in Plymouth, Marshall 
county, Indiana, and commenced the practice of law, and has 
lived there ever since. Mr. P. for a time was editor of the Mar- 
shall county Democrat, published at Plymouth, and in that ca- 
pacity made his dehut in the political arena. A strong and vigo- 
rous writer, Mr. Packard gained many friends and admirers while 
connected with that paper. He is an unfaltering Democrat, and 
as he expresses it, is " determined to die in that political faith." 
In 1859 the University of Michigan, at its Commencement, con- 
ferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. Mr. P. was the 
regular nominee of the Demo-^racy of the counties he represents. 
His competitor was Dr. J. C. Jones, of Starke county. Post of- 
fice address — Plymouth, Marshall county, Indiana. 



ROBERT PARRETT, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM ELKHART AND LAGRANGE COUNTIES. 

Mr. Parrett ia a native of Southern Indiana, and is thirty- 
seven years of age. The days of his boyhood were spent on the 
banks of the Ohio river, on a farm near Evansville, and his labors 
during the years of his minority were such as to render him an 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 151 



adept in the mysteries of producing good crops in the field, and 
fine building material in the brick-yard. He understands well 
the interests of the laboring man — is one of the people, and from 
choice is more apt to select his friends and associates from that 
class than any other. He is one of those men who acknowledge 
no difference between the high and the low, being a firm believer 
in the doctrine that " all men are created equal," and that true 
nobility consists alone in virtue and intelligenr^e, independent of 
the accident of birth. He was educated at the Asbury Univer- 
sity, Greencastle, Indiana, and graduated in 1845. He immedi- 
ately thereafter entered upon the active duties of life, without 
money or property, as a school teacher. While engaged in that 
profession he studied law, without the aid of school or teacher ; 
was licensed to practice in the spring of 1851, and since that 
time has been earnestly engaged in his profession. The re- 
cords of the courts where he practiced will show, by the number 
and importance of the cases in which he has been encaged, the 
success with which he has prosecuted the profession of his choice 
and the confidence and esteem in which he is held by his neio-h- 
bors — for although he has been in competition with attorneys in 
age and profession much his seniors, he has notwithstandin"', for 
the last six years, had as much business committed to his care as 
any other attorney in the county where he resides. But although 
thus successful in the practice of his profession, while others have 
grown rich on no better practice, he has acquired but a moderate 
amount of property, owing, perhaps to a good naturcd wayhe has of 
letting hisclients pay almost when and what they will, and in cases 
of hardship and poverty, wholly refusing fee or reward, for his 
services. Owing to his position in, and relations to the commu- 
nity as a teacher, he took no part in the political affairs of his 
country, until he commenced the practice of his profession, when 
he united with the Democratic party and became an ardent sup- 
porter of the principles of that organization, as he understood 
them — until the repeal of what is commonly denominated "the 
Missouri Compromise line " in 1854. After that he was known 
as an anti-Nebraska Democrat until the adoption of the Cincin- 
nati Phitform, when, believing that the doctrine of popular sov- 
ereignty was not in that platform, he immediately identified him- 
self with the Republican party, and has ever since been an un- 



152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

compromising Republican. In April, 1852, he was elected Jus- 
tice" of the Peace in the town in which he lived. In the fall of the 
same year he was elected District Attorney of the District com- 
posed of the counties of Elkhart and Lagrange, by a large major- 
ity, having received the nomination at a Democratic Convention, 
while at the same election, the Whig nominee for Judge at the 
same District was elected. In 1856, while sick at home, he was, 
by the Republican Convention of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, nom- 
inated for Prosecuting Attorney of that District, against his con- 
sent, but on account of a failure of the person who printed the 
Republican tickets for the County of Adams, to phice his name 
on them, he was defeated. In 1858, he was strongly solicited to 
accept the nomination for Judge of the same District, but declined 
on account of the ill-health of his wife, and his consequent dis- 
like to be absent from home. In 1860 he was unanimously nom- 
inated by the Republican party as Joint Representative of the 
counties of Elkhart and Lagrange; and notwithstLMuling he was 
confined to his bed by severe illness during the entire campaign, 
was elected by a large majority. His duties as Representative 
have been discharged in a manner fully sustaining his previous 
character, industry and honesty. The correctness of his views 
on matters of legislation and the masterly logic with which he 
fortifies his position, proclaim him a man of superior talent — not 
that kind of talent that is accorded through courtesy to rich men, 
on an ancient supposition that wealth and talent is inseparably 
connected — but that talent which is appreciated and aeknowledg- 
■ed by men of talent. His liberal and just views in regard to the 
status of the different layers of society, and his enmity to all 
kinds of aristocracy — which is generally propngated by brainless 
snobs — have secured for him the golden opinions of those with 
whom he mingles as a friend and fellow citizen. Post office ad- 
dress — Lagrange, Indiana. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 153 



WILLIAM CARROLL PITTS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM POSEY COUNTY. 

Mr. PtTTS was born in Robertson county, Tennessee, May 1st, 
1815. and is now, consequently, forty-five years of ace. He lias 
resided in Lynn township, Posey county, Ind., forty-two years ; 
and has devoted all his time, since old enough to labor, to agri- 
culture, lie is peculiarly identified with the interests of his 
county, having settled in it at a very early day, and witnessed the 
dense forests recede and the waving corn spring up in their places- 
With a lively interest he saw old Posey emerge from the Wilder- 
ness, and assume, all over her broad and fertile acres, the livery 
of wealth and prosperity. With his strong arm he has prostrated 
many a giant oak, and assisted largely in the rude architecture of 
the homel}'', but hospitable log cabins of that day. Having lived 
so long in, and done so much for his adopted county, it is fit that he 
should now represent her interests in the Legislature of the State ' 
and to no one, with more propriety, could such a commission be 
delegated. He eagerly availed himself of all the means of educa- 
tion within his reach, which were at first extremely limited; but as 
improvement advanced, and libraries were introduced, he did not 
fail to gather from them a fund of general information that fitted 
him for the performance of all the duties of a useful and enter- 
prising citizen, and qualified himself for the honorable position 
he now occupies. As a member of the House of Representatives 
he watches with a jealous care the interests of his constituents, 
and his votes are always found recorded where wisdom and pat- 
riotism dictate, when important measures of public policy are to 
be passed upon, and is known as a prudent and industrious mem- 
ber, enjoying a large share of confidence and influence in that 
body. At home he is the recipient of a flattering popularity 
among his constituency, and is blessed with the friendship of his 
neighbors in a manner calculated to gladden the heart and awaken 
all its nobler impulses. To such men — who have, by the most un- 
remitting labor, brought the State to her present happy and pros- 
perous condition — should be awarded a large share of public hon- 
ors; and no class of men discharge the functions of oflacial posi- 
tion with more credit to themselves or honor to the 'commonwealth, 
In politics he is a Democrat; but is more interested in the pacific 



154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

settlement of our National difficulties, than in the success of 
any political organization, and is in favor of any honorable con- 
cession that would accomplish so desirable a result. Post office 
address — Mt. Vernon, Posey county, Indiana. 



JOHN" A. POLK, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JOHNSON COUNTY. 

M. PoLK was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1829. His 
father was a blacksmith, and carried on that business for twelve 
years in Taylorsville, Spencer county, Kentucky. In 1843 he 
relinquished his trade, and moved, with his family on a farm, 
with a view to shunning the vice and idleness of a village life, and 
rearins: his children to habits of virtue and industry. At the ase 
of 21 years, Mr. John A. Polk, having obtained a liberal English 
education, determined to select the law as his profession, and ac- 
cordingly commenced his studies under the supervision of the 
Hon. James Guthrie, of Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated in 
the Law Department of the Louisville University, in 1S53. He 
practiced law, with profit, in the capacity of clerk, in John W 
Tyler's law office until 1855, when, on account of a seemingly im- 
paired coni^titution, caused by too close application and a seden- 
tary life, he abandoned the practice, and rttarned to his father's 
farm, in Bullitt county, and resorted to manual labor as a means 
of regaining his health. In 1856, he, with his father and family, 
settled in Greenwood, Johnson county, Indiana, where they 
all now live. Here, by practicing industry and economy, with 
some assistance from his father, he secured a farm and a pleas- 
ant home. He was married to Miss M. M., daughter of Mr. 
Joseph S. Embree, Madison county, Kentucky, on the 1st of No- 
vember, 18G0. His political experience, over and above what 
every American citizen should have, is comprised in the year 1860. 
Without electioneering or making a canvass, he received 510 votes 
more than his opponent, Wm. N. Dupree, for Representative of 
Johnson countjr. Although originally an old line Whig, he has 
been acting with the Democratic party for four years preceding his 
election, believing, as he expresses it, "that its doctrines and pol- 
icy looked directly to the peaceful and harmonious perpetuation 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 155 

of the Union ; but that now, in these critical times, when the 
Federal Government is about to be immersed into civil war and 
disruption, is willing to lay aside the partizan, and counsel mu- 
tual concession, moderation, prudence and conciliation on the 
part of all." Post office Address — Greenwood, Johnson county, 
Indiana. 



LEWIS PROSSER, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM BROWN COUNTY. 

Mr. Prosser was born in Richland county, Ohio, September 
18th, 1826. When he was 1-4 years of age, his parents removed 
to Brown county, Indiana. He has ever since resided in that 
county. His father, Daniel 31. Prosser, being a farmer, Lewis 
was broutrht up to the same calling, to which he has devoted all 
his life excepting about nine years, while he was acting as County 
Auditor, to which position he was elected in 1849, and re-elected 
in October, 1854. At the expiration of this term he returned to 
his farm, where he still resides. At the age of 21 years, IMr. P. 
entered the University at Bloomington, and graduated in 1849, a 
short time previous to his election as County Auditor. He was 
married on the 4th of February, 1850, to Miss Mary Jane Day, 
daughter of William Day, of Morgan county, Indiana. Pi.etiring 
from the office of Auditor, to his fiirm, he was again called out by 
the Democratic party, and put in nomination for Representative, 
and elected over W^illiam W. Hays, a prominent and influential 
Republican of that county, by a majority of 333. Taking his seat 
n the special session of 1858 and regular session of 1859, he served 
until the close of the session, and returned with honor to his 
home. His political course was indorsed by his constituents, and 
in the month of April, 18G0, he was nominated for a scat in the 
present session of the Legislature. His opposing candidates were 
James W. Mcllvain (Republican,) and John Beck, (independent 
Democrat,) over whom he was elected by a majority of 275 votes. 
As County Auditor, and as a Representative in the General As- 
sembly of the State, Mr. Prosser has always proven himself worthy 
of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens. A man 



156 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCIITCS. 

of more infinite jest and genial good humor does not live in the 
State. He is a faithful and consistent Representative, being con- 
servative in all his political notions, and not following after the 
wild chimeras of that class of political leaders who deem that their 
own views of State policy embody a panacea for all the ills of the 
body politic. Post office address — Bean Blossom, Brown county, 
Indiana. 



CHRISTIAN PROW, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY. 

Mr. Prow was born in Washington county, Indiana, November 
13th, 1819. His early years were spent on a farm, in all the va- 
ried labors of which he is an adept, having experimentally learned 
them when quite a youth. Indeed, he could have made himself 
master of the mystery of successfully cultivating the soil, in no 
other way — for, in addition to the nicest observation and the best 
judgment, an exercise of the muscles is actually necessary in this 
most useful of all occupations. As to education, he was an at- 
tendant of that institution so frequently mentioned in this work — 
the common school — and eagerly imbibed all the learning dis- 
pensed within its walls, which only sufficed to create a thirst for a 
knowledge of the higher branches. After leaving school he 
embraced every opportunity of improving his mind in the way of 
reading and study. He pursued this course industriously and 
unremittingly, and triumphed in his undertaking of finishing the 
education commenced at school. The hour of midnight frequently 
found him at his books, gleaning from the writings of sages and 
philosophers, by the light of a wood fire, the gems of literature 
and the facts of history they had recorded for the instruction of 
future generations. In this way many of our most useful citizens 
and jirominent statesmen have qualified themselves for public po- 
sition. Politically, Mr. Prow is a Democrat of the Douglas school, 
and above every other consideration, he values the Constitution 
and the Union, and would make any honorable sacrifice to pre- 
serve the former in its purity, and the latter in its prosperity and 
greatness. In the House he engaged with a will in the business 
of legislation, and done all that any one man could compass 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 157 



towards completing the necessary business before the adjourn- 
ment, lie was always at his post, and always prompt in defend- 
ing the interests of his locality and the State. This is his first 
term in any deliberative body. He was elected in the canvass of 
18G0 over Corkins Brown, a very prominent Republican of Wash- 
ington county, by a majority of 488 votes, which speaks well for 
liis political standing and worth as a citizen. Prior to his election 
to the General Assembly, he held several township offices, the 
duties of which he discharged with fidelity to the interests in- 
volved. He has been twice married — the first time to Miss l^ouisa 
Gould, of Washington county, and subsequently to Miss Mary 
Ann Driskell. Post office address — Campbellsburgh, Washington 
county, Indiana. 



REUBEN S. RAGAN, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PUTNAM COUNTY. 

Mr. Eagan was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, March 10th, 
1819. In politics he was a Democrat prior to 1854, when he at- 
tached himself to what was then known by some as the Temper- 
ance party, by others as the Fusion party. At the advent of Re- 
publicanism he identified himself with that party and has been one 
of the most devoted adherents of its principles from that time 
to the present. Mr. Ragan believes that the Union and Constitu- 
tion should be preserved as they are ; and that this is the best 
compromise that can be made in regard to the national troubles. 
His profession is that of the law. The principal part of his ed- 
ucation was obtained at the Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, 
Indiana, having taken a full scientific course in that Institution 
from 1845 to 1848, after which he taught in a seminary at Perrys- 
ville, Kentucky, where he married in 1850, and in 1852 attended 
the Law School at the Indiana University, at Bloomington, under 
the tuition of Hon. David McDonald. This is his first term in 
the Legislature. His colleague is Higgins Lane, and their oppo- 
ponents were John Adams, Samuel Collins, H. R. Pitchlynn 
and P. Harney Mr. Ragan has had conferred upon him, unso- 
licited, by the citizens of Greencastle, the offices of Town Coun- 
cilman, Town Recorder and Mayor. His grandparents settled in 



158 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Kentucky about the year 1790. in the early settlement of that 
State. His mother had seven brothers who served in the wai of 
I8l2, and one, Captain Smith, was killed in the battle of River 
Raisin, ^lichigan. His father, Robert Ragan, volunteered in 
Captain MczVffee's company of Kentucky Infantry, but consented 
to let his brother, Abner Ragan, take his place, who was in the 
battle of the Thames, and there made a prisoner of war. Mr. R.'s 
father again volunteered in Captain Harland's company, and 
marched to the place of rendezvous, (Frankfort,) and was dis 
charged, no more men being wanted. Mr. Ragan, sr., settled in 
Hendricks county, Indiana, in 1830, where he still resides. Post 
office address — Greencastle, Putnam county, Indiana. 



J. R. RANDALL, 

EEPRESENTATIVE PROM NOBLE COUNTY. 

Mr. Randall was born in Franklin county, Ohio, September 23d> 
1813. As to his education (which is excellent,) we have heard it 
stated that he graduated in a log school house; butas he isa printer, 
it is reasonable to suppose that he, like hundreds of other members 
of the craft— like the immortal Franklin — graduated in a printing 
office among the type. He made Indiana his home in 1839, and 
has resided in the State until the present time. He has been an 
editor for many years, in which capacity he has of course, assisted 
in "making great men^" a task for which editors get few thanks 
and no favors. To Mr. [\andall belongs the honor, (if the writer 
mistakes not) of establishing the first paper ever published in Ad- 
ams county, in this State; and is the first editor and publisher 
who has made the publicatio;i of a Republican newspaper in No- 
ble county a success. Politically Mr. Randall was raised a Whig^ 
and up to the dissolution of that party, was an ardent and unwa- 
vering devotee of its principles. Ujion its dissolution he became 
a member of the Republican organization, advocating its princi- 
ples with the same firm, honest and decided, yet unassuming abil- 
ity, that characterized his course as a Whig. He has been actvely 
engaged in politics for twenty-two years, and has established a 
character for honesty that is accorded to but few policians ; and as 
a reward for his integrity, he was elected to a seat in the Forty- 



BIOGRAPniCAL SKETCHES. 159 

first General Assembly of his adopted State by the Republican 
party of Noble county. His opponent was D. W. C. Denny, a 
Democrat of prominence and influence, and a man of unsullied 
character. As a Representative Mr. Randall was faithful and 
true to the interests of those whom lie was chosen to represent; 
modest and unas5=uniing in his character, he wasted no time in 
useless speeches; but on all questions of importance, the journals 
show a record creditable to himself, and over which his con- 
stituents will never have occasion to blush. Post office address 
— Ligonier, Noble county, Indiana. 



A. H. ROBBINS, 

RErRESENTATIVE FROM FULTON COUNTY. 

Mr. RoBBTNs was born in Adams county, Oliio, July 4th, 1826, 
and came with his father, Joseph Robbins, to Henry county, Ind. 
In the spring of ISoG he left Henry county and settled in Fulton 
county, where he has resided ever since. Living as he did, to the 
age of manhood, on the frontier, he was not blessed with superior 
educational advantages. No institution of learning ever opened 
its door to him, except the common school. Like many men who 
settled early in Indiana, Mr. R., instead of sitting down and fold- 
ing his hands when the day's work was done — or fishing and hunt- 
ing when duty would permit — diligently applied himself to the 
study of all the useful books he oould command, and perused them 
with an untiring zeal that resulted in his mental improvement to 
such an extent that he was enabled in the spring of 184:8 to com- 
mence reading medicine, in the office of Hon. G. N. Fitch, where 
he continued his reading for some time, and subsequently gradu- 
ated in medicine and surgery. In the medical profession he is 
recognized as a talented and accomplished physician, and in the 
region of his practice, bears the reputation of a careful and suc- 
cessful practitioner. In 1856 he was elected Representative from 
his county. His opponent was Hon. C. J. Stradlcy, a deservedly 
popular man. He was again selected by his party as a candidate 
for the same office in the summer of 1860, and elected by a re- 
spectable majority over his opponent. Dr. S. S. Terry. In politics 
he is a staunch Democrat of the Jackson school, and although a 



160 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

working member of his party, and entirely devoted to the success 
of its principles, has never thrust himself forward as a recipient of 
its favors. His eminent fitness for the place and sterling virtues 
as a man, were his chief recommendations for the position he now 
occupies — the duties of which he discharges to the entire satisfac- 
tion of his constituents, and in such a manner as to entitle him to 
the respect and confidence of the members of the House. He is 
a man of the people, the real friend of the laboring classes of the 
country. This is true of Mr. R. " A friend of the laboring 
classes." That is a high-sounding and potent sentence with lead- 
ing men ; but how many professional politicians are such friends? 
They are not as numerous as grains of sand on the sea-shore. No. 
Neither are there as many of them as public men. Men looking 
for public fiivors all profess to be of this stamp, but very many are 
wanting in sincerity when they declare themselves to be such. Mr. 
R. is, nevertheless, the warm and devoted friend of the laboring 
classes, and never remains in the back-ground when their inter- 
ests Leed an advocate. He is in favor of a rigid economy in the 
administration of both State and National affairs, and believes in 
that system of legislation which is calculated to preserve to the 
people the greatest amount of personal freedom and the greates- 
degree of liberty compatible with the public good. He was mart 
ried in March, 1852, to Miss Lucinda Small. Post office address — 
Rochester, Fulton county, Indiana. 



OMAB F. ROBERTS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM DEARBORN COUNTY. 

Mr. Roberts was born near Manchester village, in the town- 
ship of the same name, in Dearborn county, Indiana, June 17th, 
1834. His parents were natives of the State of Maine ; they 
were not surrounded by affiuence, but were, nevertheless, highly 
respected and much esteemed in the neighborhood in which they 
lived, for the purity of their lives and the high standard of mor- 
als they observed. His father was a minister of the gospel, and 
a farmer by ocaaatpion. Mr. R., jr., labored on his father's farm 
doing all the heavy work at the same — plowing, clearing, chop- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 161 

ping cord-wood, splitting rails, and the like, until he was 18 years 
of age. At tliat time he entered the Lawrenceburg Institute, then 
under the management of Prof. B. T. Hoyte, now of Asbury Uni- 
versity, in this State, where he remained two years, paying his board 
and tuition by following the avocation he was trained to on his 
father's farm. He acquired a liberal English education, and in the 
winter of 1855 he entered the law ofl&ce, in the city of Aurora, of 
the Hon. William S. Holnian, now a member of Congress from 
the Fourth District. With this gentleman he pursued his 
studies until the fall of 185G, when he entered the Indiana Uni- 
versity, and graduated in the Law Department, under Judge 
James Hughes, ex-member of Congress, Professor of Law, 
and Judge Ambrose B. Carlton, Professor of Law, pro tern., 
February 27th, 1857. His political life dates back to the sum- 
mer of 1854. In September of that year he made his first 
political speech, in his native school district, taking for his sub- 
ject the doctrines of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which he vindi- 
cated with marked ability. In the same speech he also denounced 
Know Nothingism in all its phases, as being dangerous to the lib- 
erties of the people. He was then in his nineteenth year. Po- 
litically, Mr. R. is a Democrat who "knows no variableness nor 
shadow of turning." He was born a Democrat, educated in that 
political faith, and never has, for one moment, doubted the cor- 
rectness of its principles or the wisdom of the measures his party 
have from time to time placed in issue in the political field. This 
is his first term in the Legislature. In the canvass of 18G0 he 
had a colleague, Mr. C. Lads. Their opponents were Wm. Web- 
er, Esq., and Joseph Brand, Esq. In the canvass, however, Mr. 
Weber, of Aurora, was pitted against Mr. Roberts, by public 
opinion, as his particular opponent. Mr. R. was elected by 38G 
majority. He made a very thorough canvass, and delivered du- 
ring the campaign thirty-five speeches. For the presidency Mr. 
R. supported Stephen A. Douglas. The career of Mr. Roberts, 
from youth to the riper years of manhood, proclaims the character 
of the man, and evinces a determination and moral courage, 
integrity and honesty of purpose, connected with a laudable am- 
bition to win for himself a fortune and a name, that furnish a 
record worthy of emulation by every young man in the State. 
In all his undertakings he has met with a success as complete as 

11 



162 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

it was merited. He is an excellent lawyer; and as a Representa- 
tive of the people is distinguished for his ability, industry, and 
disposition to transact the business of legislation in the best pos- 
sible manner, in the shortest possible time. He was married 
to Miss Eliza Jane Elder, of Dearborn county, on Christmas day, 
1860. Post office address — Aurora, Dearborn county, Indiana. 



MASON G. SHERMAN, 



REPRESENTATIVE FROM LAPORTE COtJNTy. 

Mf. Sherman's life is one crowded with events and changes o* 
place to a degree not often met with except in the history of a 
professional traveler. He appears to be possessed with the power 
of ubiquity, and is, as a traveler, almost a rival of Bayard Tay- 
lor. He was born in the town of Barre, Washington county, Ver- 
mont, January 5th, 1805. In 1826, removed to St. Lawrence 
county. New York. He went to South America in 1829, and du- 
ring the year 1830 resided on the Falkland Islands. In 1831 he 
visited the Islands of St. Catherine's, Brazil, where he tarried 
several months, and traveled thence to the city of Rio Janeiro, in 
Brazil. From there he went to Pernambueo, and in 1832 re- 
turned to Massachusetts ; where he remained some months, and 
then visited Vermont. In 1833 he went again to New York, 
where he studied the profession of medicine, and graduated in 
1836. He practiced medicine in the State of New York from 
1836 until 1814. In 1843 he married the daughter of Colonel 
Hartwell, Colonel of the Provisional forces of Upper Canada. In 
1844 he removed to Johnstown District, Canada West, and prac- 
ticed his profession in that locality until the fall of 1845, when 
he returned again to St. Lawrence county, New York, and con- 
tinued in the practice of his profession until 1850, then went 
to California, and there followed his profession until 1852, and 
returned to New York. In 1853 he removed to Indiana^ 
and contracted with the New Albany and Salem Railroad Compa- 
ny to supply their road with cars, and established his car works 
at Michigan City, Indiana. In 1854 he sold out his establish- 
ment and commenced the pi-actice of medicine in Laporte county^ 
Indiana. In 1858 he was elected to the Legislature, and that 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. . 163 

year lost his wife; she being killed by a sky rooket, on the 3d of 
July. After this event he was again nominated by the Republi- 
can party, and was elected to the Legislature over Judge Bradley 
by 44G votes. In 18G0 he was elected to the same office by a ma- 
jority of 987 votes. Such is a brief sketch of Dr. Sherman's 
life. It needs no comment, for any man who can at pleasure, in 
a few months, establish himself in the practice of medicine, manu- 
facturing business, and secure a seat in the Legislature whenever 
he wants one, needs no eulogy to establish his claims to business 
qualifications and talents of the first order. Post office address — 
Michigan City, Laporte county, Indiana. 



WILLIAM W. SLOAN, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM CRAWFORD COUNTY. 

Mr. Sloan, eldest son of James G. and Martha Sloan, was born 
in Sterling township, Crawford county, Indiana, May 22, 1826. 
Mr. S. is a member of the Republican party, but while the Whig 
party existed, was an adherent of its principles. In 1854 he sup- 
ported the People's party, opposed the repeal ot the Missouri 
Compromise, and voted for Millard Filmore for President in 1856. 
In 1858 he was a candidate in Crawford county for Representa- 
tive, and defeated by Mr. David Summers by 134 majority. Was 
a candidate in 1860, in opposition to Col. William Mans-field, and 
elected by 97 majority. In the last Presidential electioa he voted 
for " Honest Old Abe." Mr. Sloan's educational advantages in 
youth were not good ; but by close application and diligent study 
he has acquired an excellent education. He is an ardent Repub- 
lican, and an unfaltering Union and Constituti&n man. As a Rep- 
resentative he stands well, both in the body of which he is a mem- 
ber, and at home among his constituency. Post office address- 
English, Crawford county, Indiana.. 



164 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

FRANCIS p. SMITH, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY. 

V Mr. Smith wbs born in Henry county, Kentucky, August 22d, 
1818. lie moved to Bartholomew county, in this State, in 1850, 
and in 1856 was nominated by the Democracy of that county :i 
a candidate for a seat in the State Legislature. His competitor 
was B. H. Moore, a very influential member of the Republican 
party. As an evidence of Mr. Smith's popularity, the high ap" 
preciation and confidence in which he was held, placed him by the 
people of his county, it is only necessary to refer the reader of 
this sketch to the majority he received over his opponent; which 
was three hundred. Mr. Smith was a leading and influentia 
member of the House of Representatives during the session of 
1857. He was always watchful of the interest of his constitu- 
ents, and favored retrenchment and reform in every department 
of the State Government; which the House journal of 1857 
abundantly proves. Mr. Smith was again the candidate of the 
Democratic party from the same county in 1858 for re-election, 
having received the nomination by acclamation ; but owing to the 
division in the ranks of the national Democratic party on the 
question of Leeompton and anti-Lecompton, having reference to 
the Constitution with which Kansas was to be admitted into the 
Union as a sovereign State; and owing to the fact that the Re- 
publicans combined with a portion of the Anti-Lecompton Demo- 
crats, Mr. A. Gr. Collider, an independent candidate, but profess- 
ing to be a Democrat, defeated Mr. Smith; the former gentle- 
man's majority being 109. Mr. Smith was again nominated by 
his political friends in 1860; his opponent being Jesse R. New- 
ton, a Republican. Mr. Smith received a majority of 147 votes, 
and is now one of the active, business members of tne House of 
Representatives. Mr. Smith received his education at the plow 
handle, having followed farming the greater part of the time from 
1828 until 1836. He is a firm believer in the justness and " in- 
vincibility" of the great principles of the Democratic party, but 
is willing, in the present distracted condition of our heretofore 
happy country, to accept as a compromise, as an adjustment, for 
the purpose of settling finally our present national troubles, the 
amendments in the Congress of the United States by that dis- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 165 

tinguished Senator from Mr. Smith's native State, John J. Crit- 
tenden. Mr. Smith is a man of fine social traits. He is generous, 
sympathetic, and acts from the purest motives in all of his politi- 
cal, social and business relations with his fellow men. He is one 
of the most vigilant guardians of the public funds in the present 
Legislature, and would oppose with all the ability he is master of 
the squandering of one dollar of the State's revenue. He is a 
man of practical views in regard to legislation, as well as other 
matters; and is antagonistic only to those measures which are 
antagonistic to the interests of the State. — Post office address — 
Columbus, Bartholomew county, Indiana. 



JOHN STEPHENSON, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JOHNSON AND MORGAN COUNTIES. 

Mr. Stephenson was born in Logan county, Kentucky, Janu- 
ary 11th, 1807. His political career dates from the summer of 
18C0. Previous to that time he took no part in political affairS) 
except to observe the varying political phazes of the country as 
daguerreotyped in the public journals of the day, and to deposit 
his ballot for the candidates of his party. Of course, on the 
local questions, in which he was more particularly interested, he 
took a more lively interest ; but Mr. S. is not a politician in the 
general acceptation of the term, although his knowledge of State 
and national policy would enable him, did he desire so to do, to 
take a prominent position in political affairs. He is a farmer by 
occupation — a working, thriftytiller of the soil, enjoying among 
his constituents the reputation of possessing a sound judgment 
and clear perceptions of his duties in legislating for the interests 
of the State. Mr. S. is a consistent and unyielding Democrat — 
in his political creed not being "turned by every wind of doc- 
trine," and "knowing no shadow of turning." This is the first 
time he has served in either branch of the General Assembly. 
Post ofiice address — Franklin, Johnson county, Indiana. 



166 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



JOHN H. STOTSENBERG, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM FLOYD COUNTY. 

Mr. Stotsenberg was born in Wilniingtoa^JiQlawave, on tlie 
13th day of December, 1830. He was educated at Trinity College, 
Hartford, Connecticut, whicb institution lie entered in the winter 
of 1846, and graduated in 1850. At the close of college life, he 
returned to the city of Wilmingto.n, and commenced the study^of 
the law in tha ofl&ee of Hon. Edward W. Gilpin, the present Chief 
Justice of the State of Delaware. After remaining three years in 
the office of Mr. Gilpin, he was admitted to practice in the courts 
of the State of Delaware, in October,. 1853, at Georgetown. 
Immediately after his admission to the Bar, preferring the 
more active field offered to young men in the great and growing 
West, he sought a new home in the State of Indiana, and in Jan- 
uary, 184:4, opened an office at New Albany, Floyd county, where 
he has resided to the present time. During his residence in New 
Albany he has devoted himself assidiously to the practice of the 
law, having until the late canvass of 1860, taken but little part in 
politics. In the years 1856-57, and '58 he was, by the votes of 
men of all parties, elected to the office of City Attorney of t^e 
City of New Albany, a position more properly connected with law 
than politics. Mr.S. is a Democrat, warmly attached to his party 
and its principles, yet at no time disposed to sink the man to a 
level with the mere partisan. In the fall of 1860 he was unani- 
V mously nominated by the Democratic party of his county as their 
candidate for Representative to the General Assembly. His oppo- 
nent was Thomas H. Collins, a man of worth and education. Mr. 
S. was elected, and took his seat for the first time in a deliberative 
body, on the 10th day of January, 1861. On that day, the open- 
ing day of the session, he introduced a series of propositions, em- 
bodying an application on the part of Indiana to Congress, for a 
call of a Convention of States for the purpose of sitting as a tri- 
bunal to hear and redress all grievances suffered by any State or 
its citizens. The following extracts are taken from a speech of 
Mr. Stotsenberg, delivered in the House on the 31st of January, 
1861, on his motion to concur in the report of the majority of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 167 

Committee of Thirteen, with an amendment providing for the call 

of a National Convention : 

^ ^ * ^i ^ * * 

"These men whom Northern fleets and Northern armies are to 
subjugate are the descendents of the same Virginians and Caroli- 
nians whom Burke describes : They are scions of the old Revo- 
lutionary stock; they have much of the Anglo- Saxon stubborn- 
ness in them. They will be lions in your path. Yet all this may 
avail them nothing before the superior power and prowess of 
Northern arms. I admit that resistence will not avail them. Co- 
ercion will triumph. The North must be victorious in the end. 
In her blood-stained hand she will grasp a barren scepter. If that 
hour of triumph comes, and you, coercionists and masterly inac- 
tivity men, survive to see it, I charge you to remember that you 
were made aware of the blessings which would attend it. Blessings, 
did I say? Sir, they will be such blessings as fell upon the South 
American Republics; such blessings as fell upon the Pelopones- 
ian States ; such blessings as fell upon Jerusalem in the days of 
Titus ; such blessings as fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the 
doomed Cities of the Plain. Your villages, your towns and your 
cities burned to ashes ; the fair valleys, the fertile hill-sides and 
the lovely prairies of America laid waste by the devastating hand 
of the spoiler, commerce destroyed, agriculture neglected, manu- 
factures prostrated, war and carnage, twin wolves and robbers, de- 
vouring and polluting without stint or satiety; parent and child, 
husband and wife, the babe at the breast, the gentle and delicate 
maiden, all a prey and temptation to the lawless murderers of life 
and honor, who will stalk abroad. The war of coercion will not 
be conducted upon the ordinary principles of civilized warfare ; 
when brothers fall out and fight, when men of the same blood and 
lineage Avar, the basest, meanest passions rule. Demons, hell- 
hounds fight, instead of men — and deeds are done, at the thought 
of which our common humanity shudders. Indiana, Illinois and 
Ohio — not the extreme North nor the extreme South — will be the 
battle-ground, the very theatre of hostilities, and here will be felt 
the keenest ravages and the most bitter concomitants of an inter- 
necine strife. But you have conquered ; you have sustained 
the government; you have punished the seceders; you have pre- 
served the Constitution! Of what avail, I ask you, is a conquest 
over brethren at such a sacrifice of blood and treasure? They are 
no longer then your brethren; they will be your enemies forever. 
IIow impotent and imbecile the government you have preserved ! 
It is no longer then a government such as Americans have looked 
up to in the past. Sfa( nomiais umhra. The United tStnics will 
no longer exist. Your glorious Constitution, heretofore the pro- 
tecting ^"Egis of every citizen at home or abroad, and the symbol 
of everlasting unity, will then be a mere worthless parchment and 
a rope of sand. You have united all the South against you, and 



168 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

you are not united. The Pacific States will leave you. You can 
not then, with your exhausted treasury, bind them to you by those 
iron links which the old Union alone could furnish. The West, 
the growing and gigantic West, will begin to look with hatred 
upon the extreme East, and military chieftains, rising into power 
and consequence upon the ruins of the Confederacy, at the heads 
of their standing armies, will parcel out your territory among 
themselves. I trust that I may never live to look upon that blood- 
iest picture in the book of time." 

>!< ^; ;■; s-J ^ ;!; * 

"Sir, I offer to the Republicans a measure of peace. The gen- 
tleman from Jasper says, and I presume ho reflects the opinion of 
Republicans, that the North has many grievances which ought to 
be corrected. The South insists that she has grievances. A war 
seems imminent on account of them. Now, I ask you, are you 
afraid to propose a remedy under the Constitution? xire you un- 
willing to trust the people of the United States ? Will you refuse 
to Kentucky and the Border States the poor boon which the Con- 
stitution itself prescribes. They ask you for a convention of the 
States. I here offer it to you. I do not ask you to lower the Re- 
publican standard. I do not ask you to give up the fruits of your 
late victory. I propose to you a convention of States, as the last 
peaceful remedy. I want to take this matter out of the hands of 
party politicians. I want to throw it upon the people. I want to 
trust them with the responsibility of saving, destroying, or re- 
constructing the glorious Government which our f\ithers made. 
Their shoulders, and their honest hearts are broad enough, willing 
enough, to bear it. I know that they can, and that they will, if 
you give them the chance, save this country. It is not yet too 
late, unless the North has determined that no compromise shall be 
made. By a National Convention, with wise and patriotic dele- 
gates fresh from the people, you get their real sentiments — you 
save the land from war — you keep the border States with you — 
you bring back the seceding States. If this can not be done, I 
put it to you, as reasonable and Christian men, whether it is not 
better, if the North and South can not live in peace together, that 
they should in convention agree to separate peaceably, settle all 
their conflicting rights, divide the public property and common 
territory, rateably distribute the public debt, provide for the com- 
mon use of our great rivers and public highways, and pledge 
themselves to live in alliance and friendship with one another. It 
is hard and cruel thus to talk of separation, but the masterly in- 
activity man, the coercionists and the secessionists, are forcing the 
dread alternative upon the country, of a parting, either through 
blood or peace. If a separation comes, I demand, in the name of 
humanity, of civilization and of Christianity, that it shall be peace- 
able. Let Indiana, then, offer to the North and South a popular 
tribunal for the redress of grievances within the Union. If re- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 1G9 

jected, she will have done her duty. Her conscience will be clear. 
If accepted, and the Union is saved thereby, or war prevented, she 
will forever tower among her sisters, proudly pre-eminent. And 
then, sir, the historian of Indiana, who has so faithfully and graph- 
ically depicted the trials and sufferings of our fathers in thi.s wil- 
derness, will be called upon to add another chapter to that history, 
the perusal of which will cause the hearts of Indianians to swell 
with pride, for it will tell of a government preserved, of brethren 
reunited, of a bloody war prevented by our endeavors. Then, sir, 
that flag which now waves from the dome of your Capitol, will 
float overland and sea, the joy and hope of every freeman — no 
stars will be blotted out — those which were there before will shine 
with a brighter lustre, and many will be added to its ample folds. 
Oh, how is it now? how is it now? my countrymen, I ask you?" 

" Are ye all there? are ye all there ? 

Stars of my country's sky ! 

Are ye all there, are ye all there. 

In jour shining homes on high? 

' Count us ! count us !' was their answer 

As they dazzled on my view, 

In glorious perihelion. 

Amid their fields of blue. 

" I can not count ye rightly, 
There's a cloud with sable rim ; 
f can not make your numbers out, 
For my eyes with tears are dim, 
Oh ! bright and blessed angel. 
On white wing floating by. 
Help me to count and not to miss 
One star in my country's sky." 

Mr. S. believes that the plan of a Convention of States affords 
the only peaceable and proper remedy for existing evils, and that 
if acted upon promptly, it would reunite all the States again in 
the bonds of a common brotherhood — that it will prevent the ef- 
fusion of blood, and that sooner or later, either before or after a 
sanguinary war, it will be adopted. He believes that the people, 
who are conservative and Union-loving, who made the Constitu- 
tion, and who can modify or alter it at their pleasure, constitute 
the proper tribunal to whom all should go, and that with them is 
peace and the country's salvation. Post office address — New Al- 
bany, Indiana. 



170 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

GEORGE THOMAS, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM RUSH COUNTY. 

Mr. Thomas was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, September 
5th, 1805, and is consequently fifty-five years of age. At the age 
of twenty-four years, Mr. Thomas became a member of the Chris- 
tian Church, of which organization he has since been a consisten 
and exemphiry member. For the last twenty-one years he has 
been the principal acting elder. Before his removal from Ken- 
tucky, while quite a youth, his life was several times imperiled, 
and he was twice near becoming a prey to wolves, which infested 
that county. On one occasion he was defended by his dogs 
On another, while out "coon hunting," at night, his dogs beingj 
ofi" "on track," he was again attacked, and his only defence was 
his ax, which, luckily he had in his hand. On two other occa- 
sions his life was endangered by the wild animals of the "dark 
and bloody ground," the particulars of which the writer learned 
from his own lips. While in pursuit of a wounded bear, he sud- 
denly came upon it in a dense thicket, and firing at the animal, 
inflicted another wound, maddening it with pain. Seeing that 
he had not time to reload and fire, he drew his knife, with which 
he finished the contest, laying "Bruin" dead at his feet. While 
returning from Maysville, Ky., in company with his mother, night 
taking them, they were attacked by a large panther. Having 
with them a small, glimmering light, they managed to keep the 
animal at bay, until they succeeded in getting into the enclosure 
of a neighboring farm, when the panther gave up the chase. In 
politics he is a Republican ; and although he has taken an inter- 
est in politics ever since he has been a voter, that interest has not 
been of a very zealous character, and this is his first term in the 
General Assembly, His competitor at the October election was 
Dr. James W. Trees, of Manilla, Rush county. Mr. Thomas is 
a farmer, and a working one, too, as he cleared his own farm and 
made his own rails. He married Miss Sidney Walker, in Lewis 
county, Ky., October 8th, 1848, and immediately started for his 
present home in Rush county. Mr. T. has filled several ofiices in 
his adopted county, to the satisfaction of his constituents. Not- 
withstanding he never graduated at any institution of learning, 
his acquirements are not inferior to those of many men who have 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 171 



liad within their grasp all the facilities for acquiring distinction 
in the world of letters. He is a practical man in anything he un- 
dertakes to do, and when he determines to perform an act, he 
does not talk more about it than is really necessary. Post office 
address — Homer, Rush county, Indiana. 



CONRAD TREER, 

JOINT REPRESENTATIVE PROM ALLEN COUNTY. 

Mr. Treer was born in Hesse, Kierching county, Germany, 
August Gth, 1811, and emigrated to the United States in 1832, 
and settled in Philadelphia, Penn., working as an ostler. Re- 
mained in Philadel])hia in the employment of the same man, two 
years, at the end of which time he emigrated to Allen county, 
Ind., and settled on a tract of land which he had purchased with 
the proceeds of his labor while in Philadelphia. In 1837 he was 
married to Catharine Treer, of Allen county, Ind. He resides on 
the farm on which he first settled, five miles south-east of Fort 
Wayne, surrounded by all the comforts of a good home, and en- 
joying the confidence of his fellow citizens. He is a Democrat of 
the Douglas school, and for the Union first and last. This is his 
first term in any Legislative body, although he has served his 
township in various capacities. He is a noble specimen of the 
German, intelligent and industrious, and a marked specimen of 
what man may do for himself with proper exertions. He received 
no education save that afforded by the schools of his "fatherland," 
but has improved upon all the advantages ailorded him. Al- 
though a foreigner by birth, he is ardently attached to his adopt- 
ed country, and her institutions. Post office address — Fort 
Wayne, Indiana. 



JAMES H. TURNER, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM MARION COUNTY. 

Mr. Turner was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, Sep- 
tember 10th, 1812. His parent on the patsrnal side was a native 
of the State of New Jersey ; on the maternal side, of Virginia — 



172 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

his mothsr, who is still living, having been born iu Hampshire 
county in that State in 1780. She was of Irish parentage, a 
daughter of Patrick Thompson, who emigrated to this country in 
1764, and landed at New Castle in the State of Delaware. He 
was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Mr. T. was married 
to a daughter of Samuel McGregor, of Harrison county, Ohio, on 
the 27th day of June 1833. She died on the 12th day of No- 
vember, 1850. His present wife is a^ daughter of Gurdon C. 
Johnson, and sister of the Rev. Samuel L. Johnson, formerly 
Rector of Christ Church, in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, to 
whom he was married on the IGth of September, 1852. He was 
elected to the House of Representatives of the State of Indiana, 
at the regular election in October, 18G0 ; in connection with Dr* 
W. H. Kendrick ; in opposition to John Tarkington and David 
Huff, Esqs. He was at the time of his election engaged in mill- 
ing. He was a Democrat until 1854- ; but upon the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska 
act, united himself to the People's party ; and in 1856, upon the 
formation of the Republican party, united himself to that organi- 
zation. Mr. T., although making but little pretension to great- 
ness, is a man of fine talent and acquirements, and in the Lower 
House is recognized as a member who has both the Avill and power 
to serve his constituents and care for the interests of the State- 
Mr. T. is a carpenter by trade. Post office address — West 
Newton, Marion county, Indiana. 



ISAAC A. UNDERWOOD, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM JAY COUNTY. 

Mr. Underwood was born in Clinton county, Ohio, July 21st. 
1821, and removed to Jay county, Indiana, in 1837, where he stil-l 
resides. His education, by no means inferior, was commenced in 
a common school, and subsequently prosecuted without the aid of 
a teacher. Mr. U. is an industrious member, and takes an active 
and vigilant part in all the important business of the House. He 
was a candidate in 1851 for a seat in the General Assembly on the 
Whig ticket, but was defeated. In 1854 he identified himself with 
the Republican party and has, ever since, taken an active part for 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 173 

the success of its principles. This is his first term in the Legis- 
lature. In the canvass of 1860 he was opposed by Dr. Thomas 
B. Shepherd, over whom he was elected by 36 majority. Mr. 
Underwood is a carpenter by trade ; but has not followed that 
business exclusively, having been engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness and trading in stook ten years of his time since he attained 
his manhood. Pie was married January 1st, 1843, tc Lydia Row- 
land, of Jay county. Post office address — Pennville, Jay county, 
Indiana. 



JAMES C. VEATCH, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM SPENCER COUNTY. 

Mr. Veatch was born in Harrison county, Ind., December 
19th, 1819. His father was a Baptist clergyman, who left Ten- 
nessee and came to Harrison county about the year 1815. When 
Mr. Veatch was six years old his father moved to Spencer county, 
where James C. now resides. When he had reached his four- 
teenth year his father died, the family were scattered, and Master 
V. commenced the struggle of life on his own account, working 
on a farm in summers and attending school in winters — the 
course adopted by most orphan boys who attain to eminence. He 
married before he was twenty years old; studied law, but did not 
commence the practice on account of being elected County Au- 
ditor in 1841, beating Mr. W. B. Pierce for that office. He was 
re-elected in 1845, beating Mr. John Ludwick ; and again in 
1850, beating Charles S. Finch. In 1855 the Know Nothing ex- 
citement having alienated many of his German friends, he was 
beaten for Auditor five votes. He then directed his attention to 
the practice of the law, and with a success that more than an- 
swered his expectations. In 1856 he received the Republican 
nomination for Congress in the First District, entered the field 
against the Democratic candidate, Mr. Lockhart, had a warm and 
spirited canvass, stumping the entire District, and shared the fate 
of the Republican party in that Democratic District. When the 
canvass was ended, he again went with renewed energy into the 
practice of his profession, and devoted his time entirely to law 
and the improvement of his farm. In 1860 he was a delegate 



174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

to tlie Chicago Convention, and helped to nominate "Honest Old 
Abe." The same year the Democratic party nominated Mr Da- 
vid T. Laird, one of the best speakers in Southern Indiana, for 
Representative in Spencer county; and as soon as the nomination 
■was made known to the Republicans, they demanded that Mr. 
Veatch should be his opponent, believing that he was the only 
man in the county who could beat Mr. Laird. They entered the 
field and made a thorough canvass, giving and taking many hard 
truths and jokes. Spencer county had been Democratic by more 
than 200, and in 1860 the Republican State ticket was defeated 
by about 100 votes, still Mr. Veatch was elected by twelve major- 
ity. Mr. V. is naturally a popular man, and has increased that 
popularity by a straight-forward, consistent and upright course. 
He would be a favorite in any party of which he might be a mem- 
ber. As a Representative he stands fair with his constituents as 
well as with the members of the House. In that body he is noted 
for his fine business qualifications, versatility of talent and agree- 
able manners. In the discussions in the House on the 2d of 
February on the question of Federal Relations, the remarks of 
Mr. Veatch were received with the warmest commendations by his 
Republican colleagues, while the Democrats pronounced it the 
best effort made on the Republican side of the House ; and the 
publisher regrets that the length of his remarks on this question 
will preclude the possibility of their publication in full in this 
connection, but he cannot, with justice to Mr. V., or this work, 
close this notice, without a few extracts. A gentleman on the op- 
posite side of the House had said that under certain contingencies 
he would resign his commission, leave the home of his childhood, 
and all he held dear on earth, and enter the ranks of the South- 
ern army — to which Mr. V, replied : 

" I do not intend to use harsh language or deal in offensive ep- 
ithets ; but when gentlemen express their intention of taking up 
arms against this government, I must tell them that such an act 
will be treason ! I will read from an old document once held 
sacred by every American, but now, alas, treated by many with 
scorn and contempt; I mean the Constitution of the United States. 
" Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying 
war against them, or adheeing to their enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort." Our courts have declared that any combination 
of persons, forcibly to prevent or oppose the execution of the 
laws accompanied by any acts of violence is " a levying of war," 



BOORAPHICAL SKETCHES. 175 

and all persons connected for such purpose are gnilty of treason. 
The punishment for such treason is death. If any man shall rise 
up here and declare his intention to join a body of men arrayed in 
hostility to the government, and shall carry out that intention by 
corresponding acts, it will be the duty of the government to arrest 
him, indict him. and try him for treason. And when such a case 
shall be presented to a jury of the State — a jury of Democrats if 
you please — they dare not with the law and the facts before them, 
do otherwise than find him guilty. And the court must pronounce 
the sentence of death upon him. And when he is executed (as he 
must be, if we have a government) his best friend may write his 
biography. He may extol his virtues; he may record his many 
generous actions; he may cast the mantle of charity over his er- 
rors, and plead in extenuation of his last great fliult the overpow- 
ering influence of party ; he may show that men of cooler heads 
and worse hearts lead him on to ruin — but he dare not insult the 
judgment of the world by calling this act aught less than the 
highest crime known to human laws. And though he may drop 
a tear to his memery, he will be compelled to say that the pun- 
ishment of death was justly inflicted." 
Post office address — Rockport, Spencer county, Indiana. 



NOBLE WARRITM, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM HANCOCK COUNTY. 

Mr. Warrum was born in Wayne county, Indiana, July 8th, 
1818. He is the son of Harmon Warrum, who was one of the 
first white inhabitants of Hancock county, where he settled when 
young W. was about seven years of age , at which time there was 
no settlement of note in the county. When he was thirteen years 
of age his mother died, and about two years after his father mar- 
rying a second time, he was by that event in his father's life de- 
prived of a home; but with commendable perseverance he battled 
with the vicissitudes of life, carving his way through the world 
unassisted until, at the present time, he has the honor to repre- 
sent his county in the State Legislature. His whole time at 
school was nine months ; but this disadvantage he remedied by 
becoming a close student of books and a keen observer of human 
nature. At difi"erent times he has been engaged in farming 
merchandizing and stock dealing, and at present is engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. In politics he is a staunch Democrat of 
the Douglas school, and firm in his devotion to the Union. He 



176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



was put in nomination for Ptepresentative on the 6tli of June 
last, his opponent being John S. Hatfield, a Republican and a 
young man of talent and respectability, over whom he was elected 
by a majority of 144. This is his first term in any legislative 
body. He filled the office of County Collector, (now County 
Treasurer) under the old Constitution of the State ; to which 
office he was elected in 1840, when he was barely twenty-one 
years of age. In this office he served four years, when he was 
nominated and elected County Assessor by a large majority. From 
this brief sketch it will appear that Mr. Warrum is emphatically 
a self-made man, and that as a citizen and public servant he has 
the confidence and esteem of his constituency at home in a large 
degree. As a Rejjresentative he is watchful and vigilant, and a 
working member. He entered the political arena when but a boy; 
but by his honesty and devotion to principle has ever secured for 
himself the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. He 
was married January 16th. 1842, to Miss Rosa Ann, daughter of 
Mr. Redford Williams, of Hancock county, Indiana. Post office 
address — Cleveland, Hancock county, Indiana. 



ANDREW J. WELLS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM PIKE COUNTY. 

Mr. A. J. AVells, the eldest son of Jacob AVells, was born in 
Brown county, Ohio, January .31st 1830. In 1847 his ftither em- 
igrated to Spencer county, Indiana, and settled on a farm to which 
business Andrew J. was brought up. Shortly after his settlement 
in Spencer county, he commenced the business of school teaching, 
and in the spring of 1851 was appointed County Surveyor by the 
Commissioners ; and under the new Constitution was elected to 
the same position in the years 1852 and 1854, on the Democratic 
ticket. He serAcd as Surveyor until the fall of 1856. On the 
4th of May of that year he was married to Miss Catharine, daugh- 
ter of Alfred Myler, of Spencer county. This lady died on the 
8th of June, 1857, at Elizabeth, in that county, where her hus- 
band had settled in the preceding November. On the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise line in 1854, Mr. W. became a member 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 177 

of the Republican party, and, in 1856 was supported by that or- 
ganization for County Clerk in opposition to R. S. Hicks, editor 
of the Rockport Democrat, and was defeated by a small vote. 
After the death of his wife he removed to Winslow, Pike county, 
and in company with William Jones and Alfred Myler engaged 
in mercantile pursuits, under the style of Jones, Myler & Co. 
In June, 1858, Mr. Myler withdrew from the firm and was suc- 
ceeded by A. W. Bee, who died in August, 1859. In the winter 
of 1858 Mr. W. was appointed Surveyor of Pike county to fill a 
vacancy occasioned by the death of the Surveyor elect. 

After the death of Mr. Bee, he formed a partnership with James 
I. Jones and Joshua C. Thomas, at Winslow, and continued in 
the mercantile business. This firm, styled James I. Jones & Co., 
mutually dissolved on the 1st day of January, 1861. He then en- 
tered into partnership at the same place with Hugh Penner and 
Thomas Martin, under the style of Wells, Penner & Co., in which 
connection he is now engaged in merchandising. In 1860 he 
was nominated by the Republican party, in convention at Wins- 
low, as candidate for Representative of Pike county, and was 
elected by 108 majority over James W. Barker. Mr. Wells is 
one of the most enterprising business men in Pike county, to 
whose citizens he is endeared on account of his private worth and 
manly virtues. In everything having for an object the welfare of 
his county, or any portion of it, he is a leader — extending en- 
couragement to all laudable enterprizes, not only by words, but 
with his money. He is an efficient and influential member of the 
House, and his constituents will never regret having honored him 
with a seat in the General Assembly of the State. Post office ad- 
dress — Winslow, Pike county, Indiana. 



HUGH T. WILLIAMS, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM OHIO AND SWITZERLAND COUNTIES. 

Mr. Williams was born in Breckinridge county, Kentucky, 
May 27, 1812. When he came to Indiana he settled at Rising- 
Sun, and commenced the practice of medicine, for which he had 
qualified himself by a long course of close and laborious study. 
His preceptor was the celebrated Professor Gross, of Louisville, 
12 



178 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Kentucky. In 1842 Mr. W. graduated with distinction, at the 
Louisville Medical College. He is a well read and f^killful phy- 
sician, and in the large practice he enjoys, has been remarkably 
successful. In politics he is a Republican, an honest and de- 
voted member of that organization— working privately and pub- 
licly for the advancement of its principles whenever '^•ircumstanees 
require it. His labors in this regard have tended materially to 
the triumph of his party on more than one occasion, as he is a 
shrewd and powerful logician, and an orator capable of present- 
ing facts in the most favorable light, and clothing them in a garb 
of language that is eloquent, forcible and convincing. This is 
his first term in the Legislature. He was elected over Eichard 
Gregg (Dem.,) and John S. Roberts, (American,) his majority 
being 24. As a member of the House he is always on the alert, 
and guards with the greatest care the varied interests of the State. 
Possessed of vigorous and discriminating intellect, he is never at 
a loss as to the course he should pursue, nor the measures he 
should advocate. No useless appropriation ever receives his vote, 
and no law that unnecessarily burdens the people of the State 
with grievous taxes, ever receives his countenance or support. He 
is particularly eificient in his guardianship of the peoples' rights; 
and any measure that looks in the remotest degree to the abridge- 
ment of personal liberty, promptly receives his disapproval and 
most determined opposition His action in the present General 
Assembly has received the approbation of his constituents, and es- 
tablished for him the reputation of a discreet, honest and fiiithfu 
Representative. Post oiEce address — Rising bun, Indiana. 



JOHN C. WILSON, 

REPRE.SENTATIVE FROM JEFFERSON COUNTY. 

Mr. Wilson is a staunch Republican ; although he acted with the 
Democratic party until 1854. In 1840 he voted for General Har- 
rison. Mr. W. is a Union and Constitution loving man, and is 
willing to make any concessions to the South that do not call for 
a sacrifice of political opinions honestly entertained. He was 
born in the Indiana Territory, Jefferson county, February 20th, 
1815. This was an early day, when the refinements of eiviliza- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 179 

tion were not in common vogue, and Mr. AV. suffered his full 
share of the inconveniences and privations of early settlements; 
for instance, being rocked in a sugar-trough cradle in his infancy, 
and being denied the advantages of early education ; but as a 
recompense for this he was dandled upon the knee of old Capt. 
Joe Whiteside, a celebrated Indian tighter in the war of 1812- 
'13. His residence was a log-cabin, of the capacious fire-place 
order, with puncheon floor. He has eaten mush and milk from a 
wooden bowl with a wooden spoon, and played on the ice all day 
barefooted. Mr. W. is a great worker, having cleared up several 
farms in his native county, and entertains much contempt for 
those who are disposed to avoid honest labor; and that industry 
which has characterized him in private life, is duly exercised by 
him as a member of the General Assembly. He is emphatically 
a man of the people, knows their wants and interests, and will 
flinch from no duty, however arduous, in serving them. Post 
office address — Paris or Madison, Indiana. 



JOSEPH A. WOODHULL, 

REPRESENTA.TIVE FROM STEUBEN COUNTY. 

Mr. WooDHULL was born in the town of Wheatland, Monroe 
county, State of New York, on the 7th day of November, 1828. — 
Mr. Woodhull came to the West when he was quite young. Be- 
sides being a first rate lawyer and high toned and honorable gen- 
tleman, he is a most consummate wag, and has as vivid and keen 
appreciation of the ludicrous as any gentleman east, west, north or 
south; and if there is merit in a joke he can perceive it without 
spectacles ; or if there is beauty on the stage, his vision can com- 
prehend it without the aid of an opera glass. His witticisms are 
after the order of Laurence Sterne, and are inimitable. He is not 
a graduate, but is quite as good a scholar as a majority of that 
favored class. As a lawyer he is recognized by the profession as 
being thoroughly posted in legal lore, and having the ability to 
skillfully and successfully manage any ease entrusted to his care. 
He is a shrewd and sagacious pleader, prepares his cases with 
great care and accuracy, and in forensic discussions he is eloquent, 
forcible and pertinent, making his points with a clearness that 



180 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

leaves them not in the least mystified or clouded with doubt in the 
minds of the jury. lu his practice he has been singularly suc- 
cessful, which is owing to his studious habits, nice^discrimination 
of legal distinctions, and the amount of learning he brings to bear 
in the management of his business. When he first made his home 
in the West, he was sorely afflicted for a long time with that fes- 
tiferous disease — fever and ague; but neither the fever, with its 
scorching heat, nor the chills, with their Iceland temperament and 
almost perpetual motion; deterred him from the prosecution of 
his legal studies. His health in those days was not robust; but 
by good habits and the exercise of due discretion, he now enjoys 
almost an entire exemption from disease, In the canvass of 1860, 
he was a candidate for the first time for any office whatever. His 
competitor was Dr. S. W. Corbin. Mr. W. is a vigilant and faith- 
ful member of the House; and possesses a reputation for capabil- 
ity as a legislator that would reflect credit on men making greater 
pretensions. In private life he is affable and dignified, and pos- 
sesses the faculty of making himself agreeable to the company he 
is in, and no man in Steuben county is more popular politically, 
or can claim a more numerous host of warm and devoted personal 
friends. Mr. W. is an active and influential member of the Dem- 
cratic party, and has taken rather an active part in politics since 
1848, but not to the neglect of other duties. Post office address 
— Angola, Steuben county, Indiana. 



J. WOODRUFF, 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM AVAYNE COUNTY. 

Mr. Woodruff was born in Clinton county, Ohio, September 
2d, 1815. In politics he is a Republican, and has been identified 
in a considerable degree with politics for twenty years, taking an 
active and zealous interest in the political topics of the day, both 
State and National, and advocating the principles and policy of 
his party with an earnestness that indicated the most ardent faith 
in the soundness and utility of the measures put in issue by the 
great political organization to which he belongs. His education 
is practical, but not classical, not having had the advantages of a 
collegiate course ; but the disadvantages he labored under from 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 181 



this cause, have been overcome by indefatigable study and re- 
search, to which he unflinchingly applied himself whenever op- 
portunity offered. Possessed of more than an ordinary share of 
native talent, he has succeeded in earning and meriting an envi- 
able position in his own county, and enjoys no inconsiderable de- 
gree of influence in the branch of the General Assembly of which 
he is a member. This is his first term in this or any other Leg- 
islature. In the recent canvass he had no opposing candidate. 
Post ofiice address — Chester, Wayne county, Indiana. 



B. WOODS, 

REPRESENTATIVE PROM LAKE COUNTY. 

Mr. Woods was born at Winchelsea, County of Sussex, England, 
in July, 1818. After quitting school, he spent some time in the 
counting-room of a merchant ; but having determined to emigrate 
he chose the United States as his future home, and in May, 1836, 
sailed from London for New York.'^He arrived in La Porte county, 
Indiana, in the following August, and was one of the first settlers 
m Lake county, having made a "claim " there as early as 1837, 
sharing the hardships and privations of an early settler's life. On 
this land — the reward of his toil as a pioneer — he still lives, 
enjoying all the blessings of a happy home. In early life he was 
a Democrat, and remained so until 1818, when the further acqui- 
sition of territory from Mexico raised the question of slavery in 
the territories, Mr, Cass taking the ground that Congress had no 
power over the matter, and the proviso offered by Mr. Wilmot, of 
Pennsylvania, being opposed by the Democratic party, together 
with the reluctance and opposition manifested by the leaders of 
that party, to the admission of California as a free State, con- 
vinced him that the Democracy would not further oppose the ex- 
tension of slavery. Believing this, he, with many others in his 
county, acted in the campaign of 18-18 in opposition to that party, 
and worked and voted for the nominees of the Buffalo Convention 
In 1852 Mr. W. was elected to the office of County Commissioner, 
and in 1855 he was re-elected to the same office. Since the or- 
ganization of the Republican party he has been a zealous Repub- 
lican. In August, 1860, that party placed him in nomination for 



182 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Representative, to which positiou he was elected by a large ma- 
jority. Mr. Woods is a popular man with the members of his 
party ; and among his neighbors is esteemed for his many nohle 
qualities, for his industry, his honesty, his henevolence and po- 
litical rectitude, lie is a wise and prudent legislator, and labors 
untiringly in advancing the interest of his constituents and of 
the State; in which he brings to bear ripe judgment, large expe- 
rience, and mental endowments fully equal to the faithful and 
efiicient discharge of all the duties devolving upon a Representa- 
tive of the people. Post office address — Koss, Lake county, Ind. 



SAMUEL E. PERKINS- 
JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 

Mr. Perkins was born in Brattleborough, Vermont, Decem- 
ber 6th, 1811, during a temporary sojourn there of his parents. 
His father and his mother, (whose maiden name was Willard,) 
were both from Hartford, Connecticut. His history is truly a 
remarkable one, the incidents of which proclaim him one of the 
most industrious and persevering of Indiana's prominent men, 
He is not one of those who claim to be the architects of their 
own fortunes, but whose private life discloses the fact that they 
have been materially assisted in procuring an education, the basis 
upon which eminent success in the profession of the law must be 
erected. He struggled alone and unassisted through the adverse 
vicissitudes of life, only known to portionless orphans — ^daunted 
by no misfortune, and discouraged by no circumstances, however 
strongly portending evil, until he reached the honorable posi- 
tion he now occupies. In preparing this slcetch of the Hon. 
Samuel E. Perkins the writer has availed himself of the follow- 
ing merited tribute, (written in 1851 by a gentleman who had 
known Mr. P. long and well) which has been published in most 
of the leading Democratic papers in the State : 

"In our long acquaintance with him we have learned his his- 
tory. Left without parents or property before he was five years 
of age, he was adopted into the family of William Baker, a re- 
spectable farmer of Conway, Massachusetts, with whom he lived 
and labored until he arrived at the age of twenty-one years. In 
this time, by the aid of three months annual schoolins: in the free 



BOGRAPIIICAL SKETCHES. 183 

schools of that State during winters, and by devoting rainy days and 
eveninsis to books, he secured to himself a good English education 
and commenced the study of the dead languages. After he had 
attained his majority he pursued his studies in diiferent schools, 
working evenings, mornings and Saturdays to pay his board, and 
teaching occasionally a quarter in vacation to raise money for 
tuition and clothing. The last year of this course of study was 
spent at the Yates county Academy, New York, then under the 
Presidency of Seymour B. Yookins, Esq., now of Terre Haute, 
Indiana, [laving obtained a fair, classical education, he com- 
menced the study of the law in Pen Yan, the county seat of Yates 
county, which he pursued a part of the time in the office of Thos. 
J. Nevins, Esq., and a part of the time a fellow student with 
Judge Brinkerhoif, now of the Supreme Bench of Ohio, in the 
office of Henry Welles, Esq., since one of the Judges of the 
Court of Appeals of New York — ^living in their ftimilies and wri- 
ting in their otaces for his board and tuition. In the fall of 1836 
he came alone, on foot, from the State of New York to Indiana, 
a stranger in a strange land — not being acquainted with a single 
individual in the State. His first winter in Indiana he spent in 
close reading in the office of Judge Borden, then of Ilieliniond, 
Indiana. In the spring of 18B7 he was, for the first time, ad- 
mitted to the Bar at Centreville, Wayne county, Indiana. He 
then opened an office in Richmond, being in debt for his winter's 
board. At the same time he commenced editing the Jejfersonian, 
which paper had just been established by a Democratic club. He 
soon obtained a large and lucrative practice at the Bar, where he 
came immediately in contact with such lawyers as 3Iessrs. New- 
man, Perry, Test, Parker and Haleb B. Smith. In 1838 the 
JcjferRonian was sold to Lynde Elliott, who conducted it about a 
year and then failed. He had mortgaged the press to Daniel 
Heed, of Fort Wayne, for more than its value. Mr. Reed visited 
Richmond after Elliott's fiiilurc, for the purpose of removing the 
press to Fort Wayne. Unwilling that the Democracy of that 
place should be without an organ. Judge Perkins came forward 
and paid off the mortgage, took the press, recommenced the pub- 
lication of the Jeffersonian and continued it through the cam- 
paign of 1810. In the meantime he laboriously devoted himself 
to his extensive practice. In 1843 he was appointed by Gover- 
nor Whitcomb Prosecuting Attorney for that Judicial Circuit, 
and in 1844 he was one of the Electors who gave the vote of the 
State to IMr. Polk. In the winter of 1844, without any agency 
on his part, he was nominated by Gov. Whitcomb, a cautious man 
and a good judge of character, to a seat on the Supreme Bench. 
He was not confirmed. In the winter of 1845 he was again 
nominated by Governor Whitcomb and was not confirmed. — 
On the adjournment of the Legislature, of that year, and quite 
unexpectedly to himself, he received from the Governor the ap- 



184 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

pointment, for one year, to the office to which he had been nomi- 
nated. He was then thirty-four years of a^e, and had been at 
the Bar and a resident of the State nine years. With mach re- 
luctance he accepted the appointment, having to risk the re- 
election of Gov. Whitcomb for a re-nomination to the Senate of 
the following year. Gov. Whitcomb was re-elected, and Judge 
Perkins, after having served on the Bench one )ear, was re-nomi- 
nated and confirmed by the Senate, receiving a two-thirds vote, 
seven Whigs voting for him." 

The legal capabilities of the Judge are so truthfully set forth 
in the following paragraph from the recent work of Hon. Oliver 
H. Smith, that the writer is constrained to give them a place on 
these pages : 

" Judge Perkins went upon the Bench when he was quite a 
young man, and but little known beyond his Bichmond locality 
as a luwyer. I had seen him but a few times, but had no special 
acquaintance with him. He was, however, well and intimately 
known to Gov. Whitcomb, from whom he secured his first ap- 
pointment. The Judge brought to the Bench a sound, discrimi- 
nating mind, untiring energy, industry and strict integrity. His 
character as a judge was moulded very much by those of Judges 
Blackford and Dewey, with whom he was first associated. His 
close application and great research into authorities soon placed 
him high on the Bench, where he has continued his labor since 
he took his seat with an ardor and laudable ambition that has 
proved almost too much for his feeble constitution. Many of his 
opinions will be found in our reports. It is not my purpose to 
approve or disapprove of the decisions of the Supreme Court; 
they are reported and speak for themselves. It is proper, how- 
ever, that I should remark that the immense docket, with the 
change in the practice act, breaking down all the land-marks be- 
tween common law and equity, and repudiating the forms of 
pleading with which the Courts were familiar, have made the la- 
bor and difficulties of the Judges of the Supreme Court a hun- 
dred-fold greater at this day than they were under the old, set- 
tled practice, when the Court could look to precedents for their 
decisions." 

Now, that he has succeeded in gaining for himself both wealth 
and honor, his influence is wielded in behalf of the best inter- 
ests of the State, and. of the city where he makes his home, while 
the gladness of his heart continually prompts him to acts of be- 
nevolence towards the unfortunate of his neighborhood. As he 
was familiar with adversity in his early days, and often experi- 
enced all that is bitter in poverty, besetting his path and inter" 
rupting his laudable efforts in acquiring an education, his heart 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 185 

was early taught to feel for others in a like condition. Notso with 
the pampered sons of wealth, who, from positions impregnable to 
want, look with an unpitying eye upon the sorrow around them. 
In all the euterprizes having for their object the extension of this 
city, the building up of its mechanics, manufactures or commerce, 
Mr. Perkins is always to be found in the van, giving life to the 
undertaking with his money and example. It is a mystery to 
many how he can apply himself [irofeesionally with such unre- 
mitting diligence, and at the same time take such a lively interest 
in every thing looking towards the prosperity of Indianapolis ; 
but the fact is, he knows no sect ; he is indefatigable; he never 
tires when there is anything to be done. His life is an increasing 
round of labors, which he never neglects, and which he pursues 
with a devoted industry from which more robust constitutions 
would recoil. In addition to the innnens3 labor disposed of as 
one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, in 1858 he prepared 
the " Indiana Digest,'" a book containing 870 pages, and requir- 
ing, in its writing, arrangement and compilation for the press, a 
great amount of labor, involving the deepest research into the 
statutes of the State, and the decisions of the Supreme Court- 
This work has received the unqualified approbation of the mem- 
bers of the Indiana Bar as a work of great merit and utility. In 
1859 he also produced the " Indiana Practice," a work of about 
tlie same number of pages and no less important, and requiring 
as much labor in its preparation as the " Digest." These two 
books, if tliere was nothing more to establish his reputation as a 
jurist, would proclaim him one of the ablest in the profession. 
In 1857 he was appointed Professor of Law in the N. W. C. Uni- 
versity ; which position, as well as his seat on the Supreme Bench, 
he still retains, having been elected in 1852 and in 1858 by the 
people under the new Constitution. On political subjects the Judge 
is a pertinent and forcible writer, and when his pen engages in 
miscellany, its productions possess a truthful brevity, perspicuity 
and beauty which place them among the -finest literary produc- 
tions of the day. His eulogy on the late Gov. Willard, delivered 
in the Senate Chamber during the November term, 18G0, of the 
United States District Court, does ample justice to the character 
and memory of that great man, and the sentimen's that pervade 
the entire production bear ample testiiuony to the soundness of 



186 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the head and the- goodness of the heart from which they emana- 
ted. When a man like Judge Perkins is the theme, it would be 
an easy task to fill an entire volume, but the limits of this work 
will not admit of a more extended notice. The Judge has been 
twice married — the first time in 1838, and the second in 1856 — 
and each time to a daughter of Joseph Pyle, late of Ptichuiond, 
Indiana, and formerly of Philadelphia. He has a family of four 
children. Post office address — Indianapolis, Indiana. 



HOl^. WILLIAM H. ENGLISH, 

MEMBER OP CONGRESS FRO.AI THE SECOND CONGRESSIONAL DIS- 
TRICT OF INDIANA. 

The subject of this sketch, the Hon. William H. English, was 
born in Scott county, in the State of Indiana, on the 27th day of 
Auaust, 1822. The Great Valley of the Mississippi, which is 
now an empire within itself in wealth and population, was at that 
time, comparatively speaking, a wilderness, the home of wild 
and .^avage beasts, and roving bands of scarcely less savage men. 
Indiana, one of the galaxy of States, near the center of this great 
valley, which has sprung into existence almost as if by enchant- 
ment — now the home of more than a million and a quarter of 
inhabitants, teeming with every luxury and blessing — then had 
just been born into the sisterhood of States, and the stealthy tread 
of the Red man had scarcely ceased to be heard, as he prowled 
around the cabin of the adventurous and hardy pioneer on his 
errand of savage cruelty and death. Surrounded by such scenes 
of hardy adventure and reckless daring, so familiar to the pioneers 
of the West, Mr. English received his.early training and educa- 
tion. His native State being but a few years his senior, " he has 
grown with her growth, and strengthened with her strength," 
until he has become tharoughly identified with her interests and 
prosperity. 

He is the only son of the Hon. Elisha G. English, one of the 
early pioneers of the State, who served many years in both 
branches of the Legislature, and is widely known as a devoted 
friend, a sound practical statesman, of the Democratic school, con 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCUES. 187 



sistent and reliable under all circumstances. Mr. Elisha Gr. English 
is now United States Marshal for the District of Indiana, having 
succeeded the late Hon. John L. llobinson. But few men have been 
more active in the support of Democi'atic men and measures, and his 
name is intimately associated with the early legislative and political 
history of his State. Under such parental influence it is not sur- 
prising that the son should early have imbilbed the father's prin- 
ciples and zeal. He identified himself with the Democratic party, 
and took a prominent part in the political contests of his county 
long before he arrived at his majority. 

His education was such as could be acquired at the common 
schools of his neighborhood, and a course of three years' study 
at the South Hanover University. He studied law with Jesse D. , 
and Michael Gr. Bright, of Madison, Indiana, and was admitted to 
practice in the Circuit Court at the early age of eighteen years. 
He was subsequently admitted to the Supreme Court of thisState; 
and in 1845, in the twenty-third year of his age, to the highest 
judicial tribunal in the countiy, the Supreme Court of the United 
States. He studied law more as a matter of general information 
than with a view of practicing it as a profession, and now resides 
upon his farm adjoining the village of Lexington, the county seat 
of his native county, devoting the time not occupied by the dis- 
charge of his official duties in agricultural pursuits, attending to 
no legal business, except gratuitously for his friends and neigh- 
bors, who occasionally solicit his kindly offices in their behalf. 

In 1843 he was chosen principal clerk of the House of Kepre- 
sentatives of his State over several distinguished and worthy com- 
petitors. It was at this session that the Hon. Jesse D. Bright, 
the then Lieutenant Grovernor and President of the Senate, by his 
casting vote, postponed the regular election of a United States 
Senator until the next session, which resulted in his own election _ 

After the election of Mr. Polk to the Presidency, to which Mr. 
English largely contributed, as an active and efficient politician 
in this section of the country, he was tendered an appointment in 
the Treasury Department at Washington, which he accepted, and 
continued to discharge its duties during that administration. Mr. 
English confined himself strictly to business, kept himself aloof 
from the fashionable dissipations of the city, invested his means 
judiciously, and surrendered his office cheerfully at the close of 
Mr. Polk's administration. 



188 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

He was a clerk of the Claims Committee, in tlie United States 
Senate, during the memorable session of the Compromise of 1850, 
but at the close of the session he resigned his position and 
returned to his native home. He was elected Principal Sec- 
retary of the Constitutional Convention which assembled at In- 
dianapolis in October, 1850, to revise the Constitution of this 
State, and at the adjournment the Convention assigned to him the 
important trust of supervising the publication of the Constituti- 
tution, journal, address, etc. In 1851 he was elected to represent 
his native county in the State Legislature against an opposition 
majority, and over a competitor considered the strongest and most 
popular Whig in the county. This was the first meeting of the 
Legislature under the provisions of the new Constitution, and 
judgment and discretion were required of the Legislature to put 
the new State machinery into harmonious and successful operation. 
It was, therefore, no small compliment for so young a man as Mr. 
English to have been chosen over so many older and more expe- 
rienced citizens. When the Legislature met, his name was pre- 
sented by many friends as a suitable person to fill the important 
position of Speaker. Hon. John AV. Davis was at first elected to 
the post. On his resignation, Mr. English was elected in his 
place without any serious opposition, and presided with dignity 
and ability over that body. 

In October, 1852, Mr. English was elected to the United States 
House of Representatives. He entered Congress at the commence- 
ment of Mr. Pierce's administration, and gave its political meas- 
ures a warm and hearty support. It was at the opening of this 
Congress that Mr. Douglas introduced his famous Kansas-Nebraska 
bill. Mr. English was a member of the House Committee on 
Territories, which was charged with the consideration and report 
of the bill; and, although not concurring with the majority of 
the Committee in the propriety and expediency of bringing for- 
ward the measure at that time, yet, when the issue was made be- 
fore the country, he — believing the principle it contained to be 
right — gave it his most hearty and cordial support, not only by his 
votes and his voice upon the floor of the House, but by his judi- 
cious and skillful action upon an Advisory Committee, whose im- 
mediate duty it was to look after the interests of the measure to 
insure its success. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 189 

In 1854 the National Democracy of his district nominated him 
for re-election to Congress, and, after passing through one of 
the fiercest and most bitter partisan canvasses ever before known 
in this State, he was elected ; and was again chosen at the end of 
this second term. 

On his first entrance into Congress he was appointed by the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives a Regent of the Smith- 
sonian Institution — a rare compliment to a new member and 
to so young a man as Mr. English — to which place he has been 
continued by each subsequent Speaker of the House, and has 
filled the responsible position in a manner highly honorable to 
himself and prrctically beneficial to the Institution. 

At the opening of the session of Congress in 1858, the Kansas 
question, under a new phase, again arose. Hitherto he had acted 
and voted upon this question in harmony with his political col- 
leagues and the Democratic administration; but he now found it 
impossible to persevere in that course. In the closing paragraph 
of a speech delivered by him in the House of Representatives, on 
the 9th of March, 1858, in exposition of his views upon that 
question he clearly defined his position and his ultimatum. He 
said : 

"In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I repeat that I think, before 
Kansas is admitted, her people ought to ratify, or at least have a 
fair opportunity to vote upon, the Constitution under which it is 
proposed to admit her; at the same time, I am not so vredded to 
any particular plan that I may not, for the sake of harmony and 
as a choice of evils, make reasonable concessions, provided the sub- 
stance would he secured ; which is the making of the Constitution, 
at an early day, conform to the public will, or at least that the 
privilege and opportunity of so making it be secured to the people 
beyond all question. Less than this would not satisfy the expec- 
tations of my constituents, and I would not betray their wishes for 
any earthly considerations. If, on the other hand, all reasonable 
compromises are voted down, and I am brought to vote upon the 
naked and unqualified admission of Kansas under the Lecompton 
Constitution, I distinctly declare that I cannot, in conscience, 
vote for it." 

He made the motion to accede to the request of the Senate, 
made under unusual circumstances, for a Committee of Confer- 
ence upon the disagreeing votes between the two Houses, under 
a strong sense of duty, as a courtesy due from one branch of the 
legislative department to the other, and with some hope that some 



190 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

intermediate or middle ground might be found uijon which both 
Houses could stand, and their disagreements be healed. As he 
expressed it at the time he made the motion to grant the confer- 
ence, no harm could possibly grow out of it, and good might re- 
sult. The conference was granted, and he was appointed chair- 
man of the Commmittee on the part of the House. As the Sen- 
ate had asked for the conference, the managers on behalf of that 
branch of Congress were informed by Mr. E. that propositions 
for a compromise must first come from them. If they had none 
to offer the managers on the part of the House had none, and the 
conference would immediately terminate. The managers on the 
part of the Senate made several propositions, none of which, how- 
ever, were acceptable to the members on behalf of the House. 
The Senate Committee then asked the members from the House if 
they had any compromise to offer, to which Mr. E. replied that he 
had none prepared, but he had a plan in his mind, based, however, 
upon the principle of a submission of the question of admission 
under the Lecompton Constitution and an amended ordinance to 
,a fair vote of the people of Kansas, and if the Committee thought 
it worth while he would prepare it, and submit it to them at their 
next meeting. They told him to do so. This is the inside his- 
^ tory of the origin of the great Kansas Compromise Measure which 
was then consummated in the Congress of the United States. 
The honor of this great triuriiph in a great measure belongs to Mr. 
English. 

Mr. English is a man of action rather than of words. His 
efforts as a debater are more remarkable for practical common 
sense than for brilliancy of oratory or the flowers of rhetoric ; his 
mind, strictly practical in all its scope and bearings, is eminently 
utilitarian. Energy of character, firmness of purpose, and un- 
swerving integrity are his chief characteristics. In personal in- 
tercurse he is inclined to be retiring and reserved, which might 
be attributed to haughtiness or pride by a stranger, but to an ac- 
quaintance and friend he is open, candid, and affable. In the 
private and social relations of life he stands " without blemish 
and above reproach." 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 191 



MILES J. FLETCHER, 

SUPERINTENDKNT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

Mr. Fletcher was born in Indianapolis, Intl., June 18th, 1828, 
and graduated ut Brown University, Providence, lihode Island, 
in 1852. He was soon after elected Professor of History and 
Bdlcs Lcftrcs in Asbury University, and resigned that honorable 
position in 185-1. In 1857 he graduated at the Dane Law 8clioo], 
at Cambridge, and was re-elected to the Professoi-ship in the As- 
bury University in July, 1857. In 18G0 he was elected Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, over Samuel L. Rugg, running 
1,700 votes ahead of the average majority of the Republican 
ticket, a result that eloquently proclaims his popularity, and can 
not be otherwise than highly gratifying to himself and friends. It 
is almost useless to record anything in reference to his literary at- 
tainments. It would be tantamount to a lawyer pleading the ex- 
istence of a public law to a learned judge. His scholarly acquire- 
ments are patent to all Indianians; and for this reason he was 
selected to fill his present honorable and responsible position. 
This ofrice, next to that of Governor, is the most important in the 
State, and the people of Indiana have been peculiarly fortunate 
in securing the services of such a man as Mr. Fletcher for the 
place. To take charge of the educational interests of a large Com- 
monwealth like ours ; to bring the common schools to the legiti- 
mate standard of excellence intended by the school laws upon the 
statute book, and extend even-handed justice to the pupils, is an 
undertaking which no ordinary man may attempt. But no one 
acquainted with Mr. Fletcher, doubts eitlier his ability or dispo- 
sition to care for all these interests in a manner that will reflect 
additional honor on his character, and render vastly more efficient 
the common school system of the State. Post office address — In- 
dianapolis, Ind. 



JAMES W, TYNER, 

secretary of the senate. 

Mr. Tyner was born in Brookvillc, Franklin county, Indiana, 
January 17th, 182(), and has been a resident of the State since his 
birth. His father, Richard Tyner, was one of the oldest settlers 



192 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

on the White Water river, having removed with his father from 
Kentucky into Franklin county long before the county seat was 
located, or the town of Brookville (now one of the oldest in the 
State) was laid out. ^Ir. Tyner left the place of his nativity in 
the year 1846, and took up his residence in Cambridge City, 
Wayne county, where he remained till the spring of 1851. He 
then removed to Peru, Miami county, his present place of resi- 
dence. During his stay in Cambridge City, and after he removed 
to Peru, up to the year 1854, he was engaged in the mercantile 
business. In the year 1855, he commenced the practice of the 
law, in which he has since continued. He was married in 1848 
to Miss Dema L. Humiston, daughter of LcAvis Ilumiston^ then 
a resident of Cambridge City, now deceased. Mr. Tyner was 
trained in the old Whig school of politics, and continued to act 
with that party up to the time of its disorganization in 1854. — 
Since that period he has been a Republican, and has taken a some- 
what active part in the political struggles of the country. In 
1856, he was a candidate for Representative in the County of 
Miami, and was beaten by a party vote. He was elected at the 
subsequent session — that of 1857 — Assistant Secretary of the 
Senate, to which position he was re-elected at the Special Session 
of 1858 and the regular session of 1859. He was selected and 
served as the Ptepublican Presidential Elector of 9th Congres- 
sional District, during the memorable canvass of 1860, which re- 
sulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. — 
At the session of the General Assembly of 1861, he was elected 
Principal Secretary of the Senate. As an officer of the Senate. 
Mr. T. is prompt, industrious and efficient; and as a citizen, he 
joys the respect and confidence of the people of his county. Since 
the inauguration of President Lincoln, Mr. T. has been appointed 
Special iMail Agent for this State. Post office address — Peru, 
Miami county, Indiana, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 193 



HON. ALBERT G. PORTER, 

MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 

Mr. Porter was born April 2€th, 1824, in Lawrenceburg, 
Indiana. When he was very young his parents — Thomas and 
Mira Porter — removed to Kentucky, and resided there until Albert 
G. had nearly attained his majority. He was educated at Asbury 
University, Ind., and graduated in October, 1843. Subsequently 
he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court 
of Indiana in 1845. lie was appointed Reporter of the Supreme 
€ourt by Governor Wright, and in 1852 elected by the people to 
the same position, over Hon. Jonathan W. Gordon. While in 
this position he prepared and published five volumes of Reports. 
He has served two terms as City Attorney of Indianapolis, and two 
terras as Councilman. In 1856 he joined the Republican party, 
and in 1858 was nominated, without solicitation on his part, as a 
candidate for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District. 
His opponent was Hon. Martin M. Ray, of Shelbyville, over whom 
he was elected by 1,100 majority. In 1860 he was again nomi- 
nated by the Republican party, and elected to Congres.s over 
Robert L. Walpole, Esq., of this city, by a majority of about 1,200. 
In the law he first entered into a partnership with Hiram Brown, 
Esq.; afterwards with Hon. Lucian Barbour, and subsequently 
with Judge McDonald. The writer has often read in histories, in 
magazines, and in newspapers — of "Nature's noblemen;" and 
was at first inclined to believe what people of maturer years 
deemed to be a phantasy ; but when he was favored with a perusal 
of the speech of Hon. A. G. Porter, delivered in the United States 
House of Representatives, February 19, 1861, when the Report of 
the Select Committee of Thirty-three was under consideration, the 
writer believed more firmly that such beings as "Nature's no- 
blemen really do exist in mortal shape. Taking a retrospective 
view of his public career, no person can come to any other con- 
clusion than that he is a man gifted with talents of the finest 
mould, and with an energy that, in every circumstance of life 
would bid defiance to all the adversity that might by any possi- 
bility cross his path as he passed on to the goal of his ambition — 
which was nothing more than to serve his country's interests and 
insure the triumph of the principles of the party to which he be- 
13 



194 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

lon^-ed, and which he believes to be the only political organiza- 
tion in the country possessing sufficient vitality and energy to re- 
deem our beloved country from the thralldom into which it has 
been plunged by the wild, unwarrantable ambition of Southern 
politicians, whose acme of political glory could not be consum- 
mated in the old Confederacy — because they aimed at honors tha* 
could not be commanded by the intellectual force they possessed^ 
nor the circumstances by which they were surrounded. They were 
distrustful of the provisions of the Constitution as interpreted by 
the wisest and best men of the nation ; and hence, hoping not to 
find in the cool and dispassionate councils of the nation, what 
they longed for — the entire control of the Federal Government — 
they conceived and promulgated the idea of a separate Confeder- 
^ acy. Mr. Porter could not indorse the vagaries of these wild and 
inconsiderate statesmen, who have always associated with their 
ideas of government a considerable tincture of aristocracy. He 
left the Democratic party, not because it did not give him place 
and position ; in this regard he can not complain — but because 
that political organization made self-government in the Territo- 
ries the prominent feature in their National Platform, and then 
ignominiously deserted it. In his speech, already referred to 
the views of a consistent and patriotic statesman are not only, 
shadowed forth, but are proclaimed with a boldness and fervency, 
in the face of disunionists, that well might cause the mantle of 
shame to glow with its intensest transparency on their counte- 
nances. How truthfully he pictures the greatness of our country, 
its prosperity, its extended commerce, its honored name abroad, 
the prowess of its citizens, its unequaled liberty, its matchless in- 
stitutions, the potency of the name of America all over the world, 
the puissant magic of its increasing power, the patriotism of the 
brave men who constitute the rank and file of its invincible armies, 
the almost boundless extent of its territory; its inexhaustible re- 
sources, the prestige of its military feats, its disenthrallment from 
British despotism, the high and disinterested motives of its found- 
ers in vindicating the rights of man; the unappreciated blessings — 
religious and political — which we enjoy, the talismanic influence 
of the name of Washington, even to the remotest verge of civiliza- 
tion ; the sacred import of patriotism, and the devoted, self-sacri- 
ficing zeal with which every true citizen would brave death to de- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 195 

fend the beloved soil of his nativity. It may be said that the 
^frriter has gone too far in this patriotic rhapsody, but the reader 
may be assured that every sentiment here recorded is embodied in 
Mr. Porter's speech on the state of the Union, from which the fol- 
lowing beautiful and eloquent extract is taken : 

Mr. Speaker, I confess to peculiar feelings when I meditate 
upon the dissolution of this Union. I have lived in a slavehold- 
ing State. On a beautiful hill in Kentucky, quite within sight 
of the residence of one of my colleagues, in a simple rural family 
graveyard, lie the remains of my father and mother, brothers and 
sister. I desire, that while I live, at least, and while my children 
live, the ashes of those who were so dear to me while living, and 
whose memories are my precious inheritance, shall repose in my 
country, and not within a foreign jurisdiction. When I would 
visit their simple graves, I desire that no officer shall question my 
right, and disturb me, in those solemn moments, by rudely de- 
manding a passport. How many are like me; how very many ! 

Mr. Porter is a Democrat in the enlarged and patriotic sense 
of the word ; not as understood in caucuses, but as interpreted by 
all true Americans ; and never would he have deserted that party, 
had not its leaders — as he believes-^forsaken the landmarks es- 
tablished by Jefferson and Jackson. The principle of self-gov- 
ernment in the Territories he has always indorsed, and still be- 
lieves to be the correct policy on that subject. The abandonmentof 
this position by the Democratic party, and by the Administration 
of Mr. Buchanan, in particular, is what first induced him to aban- 
don the once invincible cohorts of that political legion, it was 
not without a cause; and now he stands forth in the Legislative 
halls of the Nation, the champion of the principles of the great 
statesmen who held the reins of government in the early days of 
the Ptepublic, and is willing to accord to the Southern States all 
the rights claimed by their conservative statesmen, and any 
others demanded by the emergencies of the times. He was mar- 
ried in 1846 to Miss Minerva, daughter of Hiram Brown, Esq., of 
Indianapolis, weH remembered as a leading advocate in Indiana. 
Post office address — Indianapolis, Indiana. 



HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, 

MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 

OP INDIANA. 

Mr. Colfax was born in the City of New York, in the year 
1823. Of his parentage the writer of this notice has no kniowl- 



\ 



196 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

edge, and even not sufficient of Mr. Colfax, from wliich to prepare 
a sketch of that interest he would like, or one wliich the merits 
of the subject — as a citizen, a printer, an editor, member of the 
Constitutional Convention of Indiana, or of Congress, so amply 
deserve; but notwithstanding his imperfect data he will endeavor 
to review the leading events of his life in a truthful, plain and 
unvarnished manner, and leave to future biographers the task 
that he would like to perform — not from a desire to reap honors 
for himself, but because he admires the man, his talent, his in- 
domitable energy and industry. 

The first knowledge that we have of Mr. Colfax, like the im- 
mortal Franklin, or the "gray-coated" Philosopher of the New 
York Tribune, was as an apprentice to the "art preservative," and 
this it seems, from the most reable source of information, was the 
only school to which he had access, but having an active mind, 
like three Washburne Brothers, who were at one time members 
of Conp-rcss from three different States, — Maine, their nativity, — 
Wisconsin and California, he improved well his time and made the 
type fill the place of teachers, and by the time that he attained 
his majority he had his mind well stored with useful and varied 
information. About this time, young Colfax, with a longing de- 
sire for a field where he might not only engage with profit to him- 
self, but at the same time to others, with a purse not overly well 
filled, and a scarcely respectable suit of clothes, but conducting 
himself as became the true man, and a genius bearing evidences 
of talent of no inferior order, an opportunity soon offered, and he 
become the proprietor and editor of the ])aper now known as the 
St. Josephs Valley Register, at that time a Whig paper, and 
neither the paper nor the town of South Bend, its place of pub- 
lication, were then quite so imposing in size as at present. Of 
this paper he has been the principal editor for a period of sixteen 
years ; and no paper in the State of Indiana has been conducted 
with such marked ability, and done more to build up its party Oj. 
to advance the local int'^rests of its vicinity than has the Register. 
Having from the time he took charge of this paper proven himself 
competent, "not only as an editor, but for the discharge of the du- 
ties of all other positions in which he engaged, he was nominated 
and elected by the Whig party of his county, in 1850, as their 
Delegate to the Convention to revise the Constitution of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 197 

State — the Democratic candidate being A. S. Deavitt, and over 
whom he was elected by a majority of 250 votes. Although a 
young man — perhaps the youngest man in that Convention — he 
did as much in giving tone and character to its action as any 
other delegate in the body ; and the writer of this sketch, though 
not then a resident of the State, has since, often heard his action 
spoken of as being marked with exceedingly good judgment and 
foresight, and as having been mainly instrumental in incorporating 
into our present Constitution some of its leading features. Filling 
this position with honor and distinction, he was nominated, the next 
year, to a seat in Congress, from the Ninth District, in opposition 
to Hon. G-. N. Fitch, the Democratic candidate, but was beaten by 
216 votes. Continuing his business as printer and editor, in 
1852 he was tendered another nomination, but declined. In the 
year 1854 he was nominated as the anti-Nebraska candidate for 
Congress and made the canvass against Dr. Norman Eddy, (who 
had been elected in 1852,) and was chosen by a majority of 1,776 
votes. In 1856 he was re-nominated in opposition to, and elected 
over Hon. W. Z. Stewart, Democratic candidate, his majority this 
canvass being reduced to 1,036. This was the most exciting po- 
litical campaign ever witnessed in Indiana, and especially so in 
the Ninth Congressional District, but Mr. Colfax proved himselt 
equal to the emergency, and left the field at the close of the can- 
yass with additional honors, and a lasting impression on the 
minds and in the hearts of the people of the many large audiences 
that he had occasion to address. In 1858 his party again put 
him in nomination for a seat in Congress, to which he was elected 
by a majority of upwards of 1,900. His opponent in this canvass 
was Col. John C. Walker, editor of the La Porte Times, and late 
Democratic State Printer, and a gentleman of talent and influ- 
ence. In August of that year, at the invitation of the Piepubli- 
can State Central Committee of Illinois, he went to that State and 
entered with zeal and energy into the canvass. The reader will 
remember that it was in that year, that Hon. A. Lincoln, now 
President, and Hon. S. A. Douglas were opposing candidates for 
theU. S. Senate; and this was the first instance in the history of 
our country where candidates for this high position submitted 
their claims directly to the people by making a personal canvass 
of the State. The result, however, was that Mr. Douglas was 



198 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

successful. In the Sixth Congressional District (the home of Mr. 
Lincoln) the contest was most exciting, and the result as to the 
choice of members of the General Assembly, very doubtful, and 
there were Mr. Colfax's efforts concentrated. Although unsuc- 
cessful in that year, the impression left upon the minds of his 
vast audiences in 1858, was, " like bread cast upon the waters," 
found in 1860 ; or as " seed scattered upon good ground, re- 
turned an hundred fold." And to Mr. Colfax do the Repub- 
licans of that Congressional District feel especially obligated, as 
to his efforts they hold their success in 1860 mainly attributable. 
In 1860 he was again put in nomination by the Republican party 
of his district, and again elected, his majority being increased to 
3,402. It is but justice to Mr. Coltax to remark in this con- 
nection, that these nominations were all unsolicited, and since 
1850 have invariably been unanimous. In all the positions to 
which he has been chosen, he has acquitted himself with unassu- 
ming dignity, talent of the first order, an industry that knew no 
tiring and an honesty that was incorruptible. At the Whig Na- 
tional Convention of 1848, which nominated Taylor and Filmore 
to the Presidency and Vice Presidency, he was a Delegate, and 
was chosen as Secretary^ also, in the National Convention o^ 
1852, which nominated Scott and Graham, he was chosen to fill 
the same place. 

In the campaign of 1860, but few men, if any, in the Republi- 
can party, contributed so much to the success of the National 
ticket, as did Hon. Schuyler Colfax. No sooner was the State 
contest decided — which was arduous and protracted in Indiana — 
and the result ascertained beyond a doubt, than he entered the 
field in Illinois, where, with his untiring zeal, he aided in secur- 
ing that State beyond the contingency of a doubt ; and left the 
\ State with honors seldom accorded to politicians. During the 
last session of Congress he was Chairman of one of its most im- 
portant committees — that on Post Offices and Post Roads — the 
labors of which are severe and multifarious, but which he dis- 
charged as no member ever discharged them before ; and it was 
the hope of his friends, that as a reward, not only for his political 
services, but in consideration of the merit of the man, and his pe- 
culiar qualifications for the position, that he would have been 
chosen Post Master General under Mr. Lincoln. That position, 



BOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 199 

however, has been bestowed upon another, but without dispar- 
agement to the merits of Mr. Colfax. For one of his age, he has 
already enjoyed many distinguished honors; and a wreath of 
fame already encircles his brow and adorns his character, that is 
seldom accorded even to older heads or minds of larger expe- 
rience. Entering upon life for himself, poor and untutored — 
without the aid of friends or education — step b^ step he has 
ascended the ladder of fame, until he now stands upon its top- 
most round, with an honored name that is known from one end 
of the Union to the other; and while between members of Con- 
gress of the extreme portions of the State sectional rancour has 
always existed, between those of the seceding States and Mr. Col- 
fax, there has ever been the best of feeling. His character, pri- 
vate and public, is untarnished by a single disreputable act — no 
stain of dishonor attaches to his life. In this sketch of Mr. Col- 
fax, the writer has been governed by a simple review of facts ; 
that he has done his subject that justice he deserves, he does not 
pretend to assume, and will only add that in his life is afforded 
the best evidences of the justness of Republican governments — 
where true merit, and not wealth and distinction of family, qualify 
men for places of honor and trust. Post office address — South 
Bend, Indiana, 



COL. ARIEL DRAPIER, 

OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Drapier is the Legislative Reporter for the State Sentinel 
in the present House of Representatives. His son, William Henry, 
is the Reporter in the Senate for the same paper. These gentle- 
men are endeavoring to inaugurate professional reporting for 
the Legislature of the State, under the style of "Brevier Legisla- 
tive Reports." Col. Drapier was born, August 31, 1808, in Sem- 
pronius, Cayuga county, New York. Since his boyhood — 10 years 
of age — he has been, most of the time, a resident of this State, in 
the counties of Clark, Perry, Posey and St. Joseph — his connec- 
tion with the press sometimes carrying him out of the State for 
longer or shorter periods. In 1825-6 he commenced a weekly 
paper, 77ie Western Compiler, in Hardinsburgh, Breckinridge 
county, Kentucky, in the days when it was required, in that State, 
fur a newspaper to be " authorized" by law. The two years fol- 



200 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

lowing he occupied in law and general reading in the office of the 
Hon. Willis Green, in Hardinsburgh, and in the McCIure School 
of Industry, New Harmony, Indiana — dividing his time in the lat- 
ter place between reading and the general management of a semi- 
monthly scientific journal of that Institution — Tlte Disseminator 
of Useful Knowledge. This work preserves the letters and lucu- 
brations of the late Hon. William McClure, the liberal but eccen- 
tric patron of the McClurean Workingmens' Library Associations, 
in so many townships in the State of Indiana. The succeeding 
year he was again a journeyman printer a second time in Natchez, 
Mississippi, and then a schoolmaster in South-eastern Louisiana, 
where some fishing and hunting was attended to by him in com- 
panionship with his early friend, Dr. John A. Veatch, since dis- 
tinguished as a naturalist in California. In 1830-31 he was "at 
case," in Louisville, Ky., where, in September, 1831, he married. 
In 1832 he served as foreman of the Daily Boston Atlas. In 1833 
he typed the 3d and 4th volumes of Bowditeh's Laplace's Mecan- 
que Celeste. In 1834-5 he published the Louisville Notary 
(weekly,) and the Louisville Dally Transcript. In 1836 he pub- 
lished the St. Joseph Herald^ in South-western Michigan, and the 
next year he essayed farming. Soon failing in means, and losing 
health in his family, he repairs again to the Printing Business, 
and takes charge of the State Printing in Indianapolis for the 
session of 1837-8 of the General Assembly. In 1839-40 he pub- 
lished the Equator, a literary weekly, at Bloomington, Ind. In 
In 1841-2 he was again connected with the Louisville (Ky.) 
Press — publishing with the Popes and Wm. H. Johnson, the last 
year of the Daily Louisville Puhlic Advertiser. He was afterwards 
interested in a general job office in that city, with John C. Noble. 
About this time, in his 34th year, he assumed Reporting as a pro- 
fession. Three sessions he served in the Kentucky Legislature 
for the Frankfort and Louisville press. In 1843-4, with Mr. 
M. T. C. Gould, he i-eported the Campbell and Rice Debate, in 
Lexington — 1,312 pages, 8 vo. Before this time he had reported 
a theological debate, in Bellville, Hendricks county, which was 
printed in Indianapolis. Afterwards the Weinzophflen Catholic 
Priest case, in the Gibson Circuit Court, at Princeton, Ind., with 
other court trials in Louisville and Frankfort, Ky., and in Knox- 
ville, Tennessee. In 1845 he compiled The Elements of Swift 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 201 

Writing, after Taylor and Gould — E. Morgan & Co., Cincinnati, 0.; 
Morton & Griswold, Louisville, Ky., Publishers — adapting movea- 
ble types to the short-hand symbols. la 184G-7 he wrote for the 
Ohio Statesman in that State Legislature. ' In 184:7 he was 
engaged in the Tennessee Legislature. Then for two years he 
was in the first effort made by the press of Washington City to 
establish verbatim reporting in Congress, which resulted in giving 
the contract to John C. Rives. In 1850-51 he wrote in the Ohio 
and Indiana Constitutional Conventions. In 1852 he was again 
in the corps of Reporters for the Daily and Congressional Glohe. 
In 1853 he established The St. Joseph Countij Forum, a Demo- 
cratic weekly newspaper, still controlled by him in South Bend) 
St. Joseph county, Indiana. In 1855-6, and in 1857-8, he was 
engaged again in the Tennessee Legislature, for The Legislative 
Union and American, two volumes of which (quarto,) were autho- 
rized as the authentic record of that body. He also reported the 
proceedings and debates in the Southern Methodist General Con- 
ference, at Nashville, in May of that year. He wrote in the Min- 
nesota Constitutional Convention, in 1857; and was official Re- 
porter to the Kansas Constitutional Convention, in 1859. In 
1858-9 he instituted the first professional Reporting for the In- 
diana Legislature, in the Brevier Reports, before referred to. In 
these varied relations, begun and continued under circumstances 
of pecuniary embarrassments appreciable by all, Col. D. has evinced 
those high moral and social qualities of manners and good neigh- 
borhood which rarely fail to command the credit and consideration 
he enjoys, with his family, in St. Joseph county. His life is an avowal 
of devotion to the Christian Profession, the attainment of whose 
virtues and adornments he is forward to declare is the chief ob- 
ject of his ambition. That he bows the powers of a cultivated 
mind to these attainments, is manifest in his editorial columns, no 
less than in his inner walks about home and hearth — in his treat- 
ment of political and public adversaries, no less than in his inter- 
course with those of his own faith. He takes his positions promptly 
on all issues, and maintains them earnestly and intelligently, with 
a delicate and chastened regard for the rights of others. Post 
office address — South Bend, Indiana. 



202 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



ROBERT DELOS BROWN, 

PRESENT STATE LIBRARIAN. 

Mr. Brown was born in Otsego county, New York, x\pril 13tli, 
1814, and emigrated to Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1829, with his 
grand father's family, both his parents having died while he was 
yet a child. In 1836 he removed to Dearborn county, Indiana, 
where he continued to reside until his removal to Indianapolis, in 
February, 1861. 



JAMES R. BRYANT, 

LATE STATE LIBRARIAN. 

Mr. Bryant was born July 15th, 1830, in Hertford county. 
North Carolina, in which county he resided until he was 22 years 
of age. He then removed to the city of Indianapolis. At the 
age of 18 years he commenced business in merchandising on his 
own account in JIurfreesboro, North Carolina, in which he con- 
tinued three years, during which time — on the l4th of January, 
1851 — he was married to Miss Aura E. Rayner, daughter of Hon. 
James B. Bayner, of Bertie county, North Carolina. On his lo- 
cation in Indianapolis, he entered the Dry Goods House of W. & 
H. Glenn as salesman, and also had charge of the wholesale de- 
partment. He remained with these gentlemen until elected State 
Librarian, January 14th, 1857. Not favored with educational 
advantages such as he desired, he persevered in self-culture with 
an unyielding energy truly characteristic of the man — whose 
habits of industry know no bounds when there is anything useful 
to be performed. His efforts in this regard were so successful that 
he signally triumphed over every obstacle retarding his progress 
in the paths of learning, and acquired an education such as few 
gentlemen, under the same circumstances, would have secured. 
While in the dry goods establishment of W. & H. Glenn, in this 
city, he enjoyed to the fullest extent the friendship and confidence 
of the firm, and by his gentlemanly bearing and courteous con- 
duct towards customers, made many warm and steadfast friends, 
•and enjoyed a degree of popularity rarely possessed by so young 
a man. This popularity was greatly increased after his election to 
the office of State Librarian. In this position he came fully up 
to the anticipations of his numerous frieuds; and the Library, 
under his care, was kept in such a manner, that he could instantly 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 203 

place his hands upon any volume among the many thousands on 
the shelves. Visitors and persons having business in the Library, 
will never forget the pleasant smile that constantly flitted over his 
features, and proclaimed the goodness of his heart. In showing 
persons through the rooms and pointing out the different objects 
of interest, he took a peculiar pleasure, and never was weary when 
visitors demanded his services. Mr. Bryant is a young man pos- 
sessing a respectable share of talent, a kind and obliging dispo- 
sition, and is master of that secret which secures and retains the 
friendship of his fellow citizens. Post office address — Indianap- 
olis, Indiana. 

t ■ < > I 

JO]N"ATHAN W. GORDOK", 

PRINCIPAL CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Mr. Gordon was born August 13, 1820. His father, William 
Gordon, was an Irish laborer, who emigrated to the United States 
in 1790, and settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where, 
August ISth, 1795, he married Sarah Watton, a native of Vir- 
ginia, by whom he had fourteen children, of whom the subject of 
this sketch is the thirteenth. The father migrated westward with 
his family in the spring of 1835, and settled in Ripley county, In- 
diana, where he resided until the time of his death, January 20th, 
1841. His wife survived him until May 29th, 1857, when she 
died at the residence of her youngest daughter, Mrs. Charlotte 
Kelley. In the meantime Mr. Jonathan W. Gordon married 
Miss Catharine J. Overturf, April 3d, 1843; entered upon the prac- 
tice of the law, February 27th, 1844; went to Mexico, June 9th, 
1846, in the Third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers ; lost his 
health, and upon his return, studied medicine, on account of 
hemorrhage from his lungs ; received the degree of M. D., 1851 ; 
removed to Indianapolis, and resumed the practice of the law in 
May, 1852 ; was elected a member of the House of Representa- 
tives by the people of Marion county, in 1856, and again in 1858; 
and, during the latter term, was twice chosen Speaker. On the 
first day of the recent session he was elected Principal Clerk of 
the House of Representatives. Mr. Gordon is a man of the peo- 
ple. He knows their wants, because he mingles with them, and 
as a public man does all in his power to promote their prosperity. 
Dr. Gordon is a man of talent and acquirements ; and does not be- 



204 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

long to that class of politicians who can discover no difference in 
the sublimity of " Paradise Lost" and a negro ballad ; but in lit- 
erature is even more than he is in politics, having written much 
and well, both in prose and verse. He is possessed of a kind 
heart, and his benevolence is fully as active as his purse is capa- 
cious ; and when he sees human misery without extending relief, 
then it may be truthfully said that there is no balm of Gilead in 
his purse with which to heal the wound. 



BICHAKD H. LITSON, 

ASSISTANT DOOR-KEEPER OF THE SENATE. 

Mr. LiTSON was born in the town of Barnstable, County of 
Devon, England, on the 13th day of April, 1831. He came to 
America, when only 11 years of age, where he was duly instructed 
in the art and mystery of shoemaking. His education was rather 
deficient, having only received the benefit of about two years' in- 
struction in his native town ; but being naturally of quick per- 
ception, retentive memory, and fond of reading and study, he con- 
ceived the idea of studying law, although encumbered with a 
family. He accordingly availed himself of the, law library and in- 
struction of James C. Thom, Esq., of the Madison (Indiana) Bar, 
in which city he had located in the year 1855. Having pursued 
his studies for over three years, at the same time carrying on his 
trade and supporting his family, he applied and was duly admit- 
ted to the Bar. After a brief practice, he removed in the spring 
of 1857, to Danville, Hendricks county, and shortly thereafter, 
became a candidate for District Attorney in the Common Pleas 
District composed of the counties of Hendricks and Putnam. 
After a spirited contest he was triumphantly elected over his Dem- 
ocratic opponent, (Wm. P. Gregg, Esq.,) who was well known, 
and of unimpeachable character as a gentleman. Before serving 
out his time as District Attorney (fall of I860,) he again moved, 
and re-located at Madison, where he at once entered into partner- 
ship with his preceptor, J. C. Thom, in the practice of his profes- 
sion. With but a moment's reflection, he jumped aboard the cars, 
at the " Deep Diggings," arrived at Indianapolis, became a can- 
didate, and was in a few hours thereafter elected First Assistant 
Door-keeper of the Indiana State Senate. He was married on the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 205 



7th of Decembei', 1851, to Maria Louisa, daughter of Isaac Eu- 
daily, of 3[adison, Ind. Post office address — Madipon, Indiana. 



FRANCIS P. GRIFFITH, 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SENATE. 

Mr. Griffith was born in the city of Baltimore, in the State of 
Maryland, December 19, 1810. Ilis ancestors have lived in 
Montgomery and Frederick counties, Maryland, from and prior to 
the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Gr. is the son of Howard 
Griffith, one of the defenders of the city of Baltimore in the War 
of 1812. In 1839 Mr. Griffith Jr., came to Ohio, and commenced 
the study of medicine, and graduated with distinguished honor in 
184-5. Ho practiced medicine in that State until 1852, and then 
removed to Indiana. At first he settled in Grant county, but af- 
terwards — in April, 1858 — made his permanent home in La- 
grange county, where he now resides. His education is superior, 
and his miscellaneous reading extends through the volumes of 
all the standard writers. Ilis professional learning places him 
among the best and most successful physicians in the State. In 
the State of Ohio he enjoyed an extensive practice, and as a phy- 
sician had an enviable popularity in the vicinity of his profes- 
sional labors. In his deportment he is unassuming, avoids all 
ostentation, and treats with becoming courtesy all with Avhom he 
is brought in contact. As Assistant Secretary of the Senate, he 
is noted for industry, and for the systematic and straightforward 
manner in which he performs the onerous and multitudinous 
duties of that responsible position. His early political tenets were 
those of the Whig party, in the ranks of which organization he 
labored with a devoted earnestness that evinced the sincerity of 
his political faith. His first presidential vote was cast for Henry 
Clay. Vriien that time-honored party fell into decay, he joined 
the Repuljlican movement, and since that time has been no less 
industrious in proclaiming its principles than he was in bearing 
aloft the standard of Henry Clay. Though not an Abolitionist, 
who would only free the slave to plunge him into a misery more 
intense than he now suff"ers, he is opposed to the institution, and 
thinks it is wrong wherever, and in whatever shape it is found. 
He believes it to be antagonistic to the principles of political 
economy, and subversive of national prosperity — his political creed 



206 BIOQRAPniCAL SKETCHES. 

being that all government, whether political, social or moral, 
should be based upon the doctrines and precepts of the Bible. 
Mr. Griffith's code of national ethics is well founded and fitly- 
chosen. Resting for support on that Book of Inspiration and 
Justice, it can not be wrong, although it does not meet with uni- 
versal favor in the land. 



JOHN PAUL JONES, 

CLERK OF THE SUPREME COURT. 

Mr. Jones was born in ^yestminster, Carroll county, Mary- 
land, February 19th, 1822. He came to Indiana in 1840, 
settled at Fort Wayne, and graduated at Brush College, in this 
State. At 21 years of age he assumed the duties of a traveling 
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which capacity he 
acted six years, and abandoned the calling in consequence of ill 
health. He was a member of the General Assembly from the 
County of Lagrange in 1850-51, having for his opponent Benja- 
min G. Bennett, a Democrat. He was elected Clerk of the La 
Grange Circuit Court in 1852, and re-elected in 1856. In 1860 
he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court of Indiana, which po- 
sition he is peculiarly fitted for, being a careful and vigilant offi- 
cer. Mr. Jones, previous to the organization of the Republican 
party, was a Whig. He has resided in La Grange county since 
1848. Post office address — Indianapolis, Indiana. 



AZEL PIERRE NEWKIRK, 

PRINCIPAL ASSISTANT CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

M. Newkirk was born on the 3d day of June, 1833, in the 
City of Cincinnati. His father settled in Counersville, Fayette 
county, Indiana, the same year. For seven or eight years, com- 
mencing at the age of 15, he traveled as an agent throughout the 
several States of the Union. Settled in Counersville in October, 
1857, and commenced the study of the law in the office of the 
Hon. S. W. Parker. Entered the practice after seven months 
reading, and continued until the political campaign of 1800. He 
then espoused the Republican cause ; formed the company of 
"Wide Awakes," known as " Abe's Boys" — and acted as their 
Captain during the campaign. The company were pronounced 
the best drilled in the State. Mr. N. made many stump speeches 
during the campaign, and was elected Assistant Clerk of the 
House of Representatives, on the 10th of January, 1861. Mar- 
ried on the 30th of January, 1860. He has returned to Con- 
nersville, to resume the practice of the law, and ifjoccasion requires, 
will fight to the death for the union of the States. Post office ad- 
dress — Connersville, Indiana. 



CONTENTS. 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 



Henry S. Lane, 



MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 



Colfax Schuyler, 
Englisli Wm. H., . 
Porter Albert G., 



STATE OFFCERS. 



Brown Robert D., 
Fletcher Miles J., 
Harvey Jonathan S., 
Jones John P., . . 
Morton Oliver P., 
Peelle William, 
Lange Albert, 



19 



195 

186 
193 



202 

191 

65 

206 

7 

21 

12 



JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT. 



Perkins Samuel E., 
Worden James L., 



MEBEERS OF THE SENATE — SESSION OF 1861. 



Beeson Othniel, 
Berry Edward H. M, 
Blair Solomon, 
Campbell Henry, 
Carnahaa Magnus T, 
Cobb Thomas, 
Conley Jason N, 



182 
19 



38 
33 
44 
53 
15 
49 
39 



208 



CONTENTS 



Craven Hervey, of IMadison, 
DeHart R. P., 
Dickinson Timothy R., 
Ferfruson Charles P., 
Grubb George B., 
Hamilton Allen, 
Hull James S., 
Johnston Archibald, . 
Jones Smith, 
Landers Franklin, 
Line Aaron B., 
Lomax Quinton, 
Miller John F., . 
Murray Charles L., . 
Newcomh Horatio C, 
O'Brien Cornelius, . 
Odell James, 
Bay Martin M., 
Robinson Benjamin L., 
Shields M. W., 
Shoemaker John C, 
Shoulders Thomas, . 
Slack James R., 
Stone Asahel, 
Studabaker David, 
Tarkington W. C, . 
Teegarden Abraham, 
Turner David, . 
White Michael D., 
Williams James D., . 
Wilson Henry K., 
Wolfe Simeon K., 



MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



Allen Cyrus M., 
Anderson Noah, 
Atkison Geo. Y., 
Bingham Lucius, . 
Black A. M., . 
Boydston T. G., 
Branham David C, 
Brett M. L., . 
Brucker N., 
Bryan Wm. H., . 
Bundy Martin L., 
Burgess James, 
Cameron Robert A., 



CONTENTS. 



209 



Cason T. J., . 

Collins James S., 
Collins P. N., 
Combes William, 
Cooprider Elias, 
Grain John G., 
Dashiel John T., 
Davis Samuel, . 
Dobbins Cutler S., 
Edson Joseph P., 
Epperson Richard, 
Erwin Hugh, 
Feagler Henry, 
Flamming Allen T 
Ford John L., 
Fordyce Nelson, 
Fraley James F., 
Frasier George W.. 
Gifford Thomas, 
Goar Joseph, 
Grover Ira G., 
Hall William, . 
Harvey Samuel, 
Haworth Richard M., 
Hayes John, . 
Hefiren Horace, 
Henricks John A., 
Holcomb Silas M., 
Horton Theodore, 
Howard Thomas J. 
Hudson Samuel, 
Hurd Anson, 
Jenkinson Moses, 
Jones D. M., 
Jones Oliver T., 
Kendrick W. H., 
Kitchen Dennis B., 
Knowlton C. B., 
Lads Charles, 
LaneHiggins, . 
Lee Nathaniel, 
Lightner Daniel D., 
McClurg Leander, 
McLean William E. 
Moody C. G., 
Moorman J. A^, 
Moss William G., . 
Mutz Jacob, 

14 



93 
95 

94 
95 
96 
97 
98 
99 
100 
102 
104 
104 
106 
108 
108 
109 
110 
111 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 
119 
120 
121 
122 
123 
125 
126 
127 
129 
128 
129 
130 
132 
132 
133 
135 
135 
136 
137 
138 
139 
140 
142 
142 
143 



210 



CONTENTS 



Nebeker Richard M., 
Newman E. B,, 
Orr James, 
Owens VV. W., . 
Packard Marcus A. 0., 
Parrett Robert, 
Pitts William C, 
Polk John A., . 
Prosser Lewis, 
Prow Christian, 
Ragan Reuben S., 
Randall J. R., 
Robbins A. H., 
Roberts Omar F., 
Sherman Mason Gr., 
Sloan William W. 
Smith Francis P., 
Stephenson John, 
Stotsenburg John H., 
Thomas George, 
Treer Conrad, 
Turner James H., 
Underwood Isaac A., 
Veatch James C, 
Warrum Noble, 
Wells Andrew J., 
Williams Hugh T., 
Wilson John C, 
Woodhull Joseph A., 
Woodruff J., . 
Woods B., . 



144 

146 

147 

148 

149 

150 

153 

154 

155 

156 

157 

158 

159 

160 

162 

163 

164 

165 

166 

170 

171 

171 

172 

173 

175 

176 

177 

178 

179 

180 

181 



OFFICERS OP THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND OTHERS. 

Bryant James R., . .202 

Drapier Ariel, ......... 199 

Gordon Jonathan W., 203 

Griffith Francis P., 205 

Litson Richard H., 204 

Newkirk A. P., 206 

Tyner James N., 191 



D. W. C. RUGG, 



DEAIiER IN 



OUTLINE MAPS, 



GJ^LOBES, 

CHC^I^TS, TABLETS, &0., 




AND MANUFACTURER OF 



SCHOOL SEATS & DESKS, 

Of the most approved patterns. 

»-♦-♦ 

Also, in connection with 

STURM, STEFFENS & CO., 

Manufacturer of all kinds of 




D 



IL iPP'^^'^'^ 






I 



AND 



MATHEMATICAL 

INSTRXJMENTS. 

1 ^ » 



ALL ARTICLES OF 



SCHOOL FURNITURE AND APPARATUS, 

Will be furnished in good order, at the lowest Boston prices. 

We respectfully solicit the patronajre of the School Oificers and 
Teachers of Indiana, who will certainly find it to their advantage to 
supply themselves from our establishment. 

Corner of Kentucky Avenue and "Washington St., 

Opposite the Bates and Palmer Housie, 



BOWEN, STEWART & CO., 

iOOISELLEI 

AND 

STATIONERS, 

DEAIiERS IN 

WALL PAPER, WINDOW PAPER, 

PRINTING PAPER AND PRINTER'S MATERIALS, 

No. 18 West Washington Street, 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



D. M. JONES, 

ATTORNEY AT LAW, 

"Vei'inilli^ii Covinty, Iiicliaiia. 



ROBERT E. CRAIG, 

ATTORNEY AT LAW, 

Vermillion County, Indiana. 



EYE INFIRMARY. 




DOCTOR L. GUSTIN, 

Having permanently located in Indianapolis, would inform those 
suffering from 

CHRONIC OR ACUTE OPHTHilLill, 

(Generally termed Inflammation of the Eye,) 









SiiiT 



Arising from Ulceration of the Eye or its membranes, or injury of 
any kind, either of short duration or many years' standing, 
that he is prepared, in all cases, to give imme- 
diate relief, and in most cases to give 

A PERFECT CURE IN A VERY SHORT TIME, 

As a great many who have been so afflicted are willing to testify. 

ALSO, 

iwm Ai ciiii 

Scrofula or King's Evil, 

Treated Successfully. 




All Chronic Diseases attended to at his Office, 

Opposite West End of Union Depot, 

N. E. Corner Illinois and Louisiana Streets, 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 




'■o 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



R, 



STATE GAZETTEERS AND BUSINESS DIRECTORIES, 

For the following Western States, have been compiled at this Office, 



Mlcliigan, 
Ohio, 
Indiana, 
Illinois, 



Missouri, 

Kansas, 
Iowa, 

Minnesota, 



And other Statistical Works relative to the above named States. 

Six years' experience in the labor of collecting and compiling a 
vast amount of statistical information in the great West, give him 
facilities possessed by no other Gazetteer Publisher and Compiler in 
the United States. (See next page.) 



(Continued from preceding page.) 

BOOKS & PAMPHLETS. 

OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, 

Printed and Bound in the very best style of the art. 



'9 



Employing none as assistants but those who are experienced as 
compilers and proof readers, I am prepared to arrange and compile 
Statistical Works of every description, and attend to proof reading. 

Estimates of the cost of Printing, Paper and Binding, for Books 
and Pamphlets, will be cheerfully furnished on application. 



GEIRAL STATISTICAL COiPMR, 

JOURNAL BUILDING, 



STATE OFFICERS OF INDIANA. 
INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL COMPANY. 
STOUGHTON A. FLETCHER, BANKER. 



IPulblisliecl at tliis Office. 



Indiana — 
Indianapolis. 
New Albany. 
Lafayette. 
Richmond. 
Terre Haute. 
Cambridge City. 
Jefiersonville. 
Fort Wayne. 



Illinois — 
Quincy. 
Galesburgh. 

Belleville and St. Clair Co. 
Rockford and Freeport. 
Galena. 
Dunleith. 
Peru and Lasalle. 
Ottawa. 
Alton. 



(Continued from opposite page.) 

CITY DIRECTORIES, 



I?iilt>lisliecl at tliis Office. 



Missouri — 
Kansas City, 
St. Joseph. 
Hannibal. 
Independence. 
Lexington. 



Kansas — 
Leavenworth 
Atchison. 
Lawrence. 



Iowa — 
Dubuque. 
Burlington. 
Keokuk. 
Muscatine. 
Ft. Des Moines. 
Iowa City. 
Davenport. 



Wisconsin — 
Milwaukee. 
Janesville. 
Beloit. 
Delavan. 

Nebraska — Madison. 

Nebraska City. Eacine. 

Omaha. Kenosha. 

Any of the above Books will be furnished on addressing 

JAMES SUTHERLAND, 

Box Js^T^S, Incliaiiapolis, Ind. 

GENERAL AGENTS. 
lOTTA. 7?L]xr> ]>j:iiv]vesota, 

JAMES M. HOOD, Keokuk, Iowa. 

BEN. NUTE, Jr., and WM. H. H. BECK, 

Leaven^^orth., Kansas. 



Biograpliical Sketches of Members of the Forty- 
First General Assembly of Indiana. Just 
Published. Price $1.25. Sent free of postage 
on receipt of Price- 

The First Edition of the above work is nearly exhausted, and pre" 
parations are being made for the early issue of a Second Edition; 
with the addition of Sketches of our Prominent Men who have, from 
time to time, in the Congress of the United States, watched over the 
interests of the State of Indiana. 

Also, in course of compilation, a History and Description op thk 
Des Moines Valley, Iowa, with a complete Classified Directory of 
the Cities, Towns and Villages, embraced within twenty miles on 
either side of the Des Moines Eiver. This work will also contain 
Maps of the Coal Regions of the Des Moines accurately defined. 

The compiler has been kindly furnished with many interesting 
facts and statistics of the Des Moines Valley, by N. H. Parker, Esq., 
author of " Iowa as it is," and the present Western Corx-espondent at 
Chicago, Illinois, of the American Railway Review. 

Price $2.00 in Cloth ; $2.50 in Leather. 



AL ESTATE AGExNCY, 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. 




WM. Y. WILEY. L. R. MARTIN. 

WILLIAM Y. WILEY, 

REAL ESTATE AGEI^T, 

-A.lSrr> IDEA-LER I3Sr 

LAND WARRANTS, STOCKS, BONDS, fee, 
No. lOi East Washington St., 

Buys and sells on Commission, Houses and lots, Vacant lots. Farms and Farming 
Lands, in all the Western States, Stocks, Bonds, Notes, Land "Warrants, &c.: Stocks of 
Goods and merchandise of all description. Negotiates loans and makes Collections. 
Rents and leases Houses and Farms. Collects Kents, Notes and Claims. Pays Taxes, 
anil examines Titles in all the Western States, 

Having: the best facilities for choice selections, will enter Lands, with Land Warrants 
or Cash on liberal terms. Particular attention paid to the Auction sales of Keal Kstate. 

Commissioner of Deeds for all the States and Territories. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



(.See Engraving on opposite page.) 



This new and elegant block, erected and owned by VVm 
Glenn, 11. Glenn and R. P. Glenn, is situated on the south 
side of Washington, between Meridian and Pennsylvania 
Sts., occupying the site of the old Browning Hotel, after- 
wards called the Wright nousc. It is three and a half 
stories high, being 68 feet front on Washington street, and 
extending back to Pearl Street, containing three store rooms 
and eight offices ; the side stores are 17-^ feet wide and 132 
feet deep. The center store, known as the New York 
Store, is occupied by the proprietors of the block, W. & H. 
Glenn & Co., and is 32^ feet in width by 132 feet in depth. 
This store is the mammoth dry goods estatlishment of the 
State. The offices are occupied by lawyers, doctors, archi- 
tects, piano manufacturers, lightning rod manufacturers, a 
music teacher, Republican State Central Committee, intelli- 
gence office, and the Indiana American. One store (that 
on the east,) is occupied by Merrill & Co., dealers in law 
books, stationery, «&:c. The one on the west side is occu- 
pied as a shoe store by Cady & Co, The appearance of this 
block is very attractive, chaste and elegant, without a fault, 
and is an ornament to our main street. It was rebuilt at a 
cost to the Messrs. Glenn of forty-five thousand dollars. 



